Fisheries committee  Thank you very much.

Fisheries committee  Yes. That is actually a significant policy issue that I don't think is appropriate for me to comment on in this forum. But I will say I have read all of the committee's reports on the coast guard. It seemed judicious to do that.

Fisheries committee  No, in the period I've been in this position on an acting basis and since my appointment, no one has raised that with me--although as I mentioned in my previous response, for about 20 years we've had about 50 coast guard people trained to support armed boardings in very selected

Fisheries committee  Yes, Mr. Chairman, it's actually an issue I have some concern about. As you correctly point out, we employ an awful lot of casual and term people, many of whom have been employed with us in that capacity for many years.

Fisheries committee  Exactly. And they have developed considerable experience and expertise. I have spoken to some of our key union representatives to try to work with them to look at the possibility of setting up some sort of permanent relief pool to replace, over time, our use of a lot of casual a

Fisheries committee  No. I think that would only kick in after three years of continuous employment.

Fisheries committee  No. I have never discussed this question until today because of its political nature. We now have 50 employees who have had the necessary training and who have been helping fishery officers in certain situations for 20 years now. The coast guard has some experience in this matter

Fisheries committee  No, I haven't been part of any discussions of that nature. But let me add that we do support strongly the RCMP and the border agency in some of those activities. Right now about 70% of what we do is on coast guard mandated programs, about 25% of what we do is in support of fishe

Fisheries committee  I hope to obtain the search and rescue study report in January.

Fisheries committee  I have no such plans.

Fisheries committee  Well, the coast guard is a special operating agency.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I fully understood your question. We are under a certain amount of pressure concerning our level of service in various regions. We are studying these pressures. There are certain things at stake, particularly on the North shore. These are also part of th

Fisheries committee  At this point, I don't see any change in requirement. In fact the only issue I'm aware of with that station is they'd like a little more space.

Fisheries committee  I don't see a physical expansion of the college, but we certainly have already expanded significantly the number of cadets we're taking in. This year, I think we've recruited around 45 new cadets, which I think is significantly more than in the past number of years, and we're pro

Fisheries committee  Two or three years ago we did put in an interim measure, the refurbished hovercraft that is a backup there. Now, as part of the fleet renewal plan that I was discussing, we're looking at the options and the timing for a permanent solution, which ultimately will be a new ACV.