OTTAWA — A House of Commons committee gave its conditional nod of approval Friday to the federal government’s planned closure next week of a communications station in Comox. Liberal and Conservative MPs on the committee, overriding the objections of New Democratic MPs, accepted the Canadian Coast Guard’s argument that mariner and public safety won’t be imperilled by the move.
“The committee has been sufficiently reassured that the capacity of the Canadian Coast Guard to respond to emergency situations has not diminished,” the committee said in a statement after tabling its report in Parliament.
The parliamentary committee of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans urged the government to closely monitor the situation to ensure problems don’t develop.
Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo, who indicated before the report’s release that the Comox closure would be going ahead as planned on Tuesday, praised the report’s conclusions.
“I am very pleased that the standing committee on fisheries and oceans has recognized that marine safety remain a top priority, even with the consolidation of Comox,” he told the House of Commons.
The coast guard launched a modernization plan in 2007 that included consolidating five marine communications and traffic services centres on the West Coast into two.
The principal “super centre” is in Victoria, while a second centre handles north coast marine traffic out of Prince Rupert.
The Vancouver and Tofino stations have been closed, so the transfer of operations from Comox to Victoria will conclude the plan.
The NDP issued a dissenting report saying the government’s decision is flawed.
“Witnesses testified that this closure will be a detriment to the safety of Canadians on the West Coast,” the report stated, noting that Comox was the only one of the five stations not located in a tsunami zone.
“Currently, out of the 6,000 search-and-rescue incidents that occur annually in Canada, approximately 1,000 of those are handled by Comox. Closing this busy centre increases the risk to mariner safety.”
But the majority of committee members concluded that safety wasn’t being jeopardized, relying on the coast guard’s assurance that the new setup will be “not only more reliable, but flexible and adaptable.”
The committee, however, asked the government to work closely with the union that has objected to the closure, Unifor, to resolve concerns expressed about excessive noise at the Victoria facility.
