Conservative and NDP MPs are demanding the government divulge information about its “potentially life-threatening” decisions concerning the Canadian Coast Guard.
“It’s deeply troubling,” Opposition fisheries critic Todd Doherty said in an interview. “The government is walking away from their responsibilities.”
In a letter sent this week to the clerk of House of Commons fisheries committee, Doherty highlighted the threatened closure of three Coast Guard stations, the recent disbanding of the Coast Guard’s only team of emergency rescue divers and cuts to specific resource and education programs.
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He said each of those moves is “unacceptable,” puts the lives of thousands at risk, and jeopardizes the safety of Canadian waterways, particularly in British Columbia.
Last week, the union representing employees with the Coast Guard said the government is intending to close stations Gimli and Selkirk, Man. and in Kenora, Ont.
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In a telephone interview, Doherty said his questions to the government about these decisions have so far been met with “mixed messages.”
That is why he, with the support of the NDP member on the fisheries committee, is asking for a meeting to discuss the “unacceptable” situation.
“We feel that it is important for committee members to get a fuller understanding of the nature of these cuts,” the letter, addressed Tuesday, reads.
“We have some dangerous waters and we’re entering the busiest season on the water,” Doherty told Global News.
NDP fisheries critic Fin Donnelly is supporting Doherty’s bid to hold a meeting on the issues outlined in the Conservative’s letter. His support means the committee chair, Liberal MP Scott Simms, will at least have to address the letter.
When the Liberal government announced two weeks ago it was disbanding the dive team, Donnelly said the move was “reckless and dangerous.”
He recalled the last time the dive team was cut was in 2001, which was also under a Liberal government. Two days after it was cancelled, a man crashed his car into B.C.’s Fraser River. Although members of the team were on site within minutes, their equipment had been taken away leaving them unable to help and, potentially, save the man’s life.
“Cutting the dive team again takes us back over 15 years in terms of preventing loss of life,” Donnelly said. “We are about to enter the busiest boating season of the year.”
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Global News asked Fisheries and Oceans Minister Dominic Leblanc’s office for comment on the critics’ views of his decision. The department responded with a brief statement saying the Canadian Coast Guard is planning to, in the coming months, work with different levels of government to review what navigation services might be required down the line.
“No changes to services will occur until the review has been completed,” a department spokesperson said.
The email also confirmed the Coast Guard stations in Gimli and Selkirk, which are each staffed by four crew members at a time, and the Kenora station, which is staffed by two people at a time, are “under review.”
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