Post by bot on Feb 10, 2011 20:38:49 GMT -5
Gallant blasted for telling Newfoundlanders to save own lives - Tory MP suggested people not count on Coast Guard if they run into trouble at sea
***ADMINISTRATORS NOTE: Sounds typical of the Harper Government - everyone fend for themselves*
By David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen
February 10, 2011
Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant is under fire for suggesting Newfoundlanders who make their living from the sea take more responsibility for their own lives and not expect to be rescued by the Coast Guard if they run into trouble.
Explaining that those who operate on the Great Lakes and Ottawa River don’t count on the Coast Guard for help, the Ottawa Valley MP told an audience in St. John’s, including those who had lost relatives and fellow workers during maritime accidents, that it’s up to local communities, the province and private companies to make more of an effort to help with rescues and perhaps finance such services.
But her message during a Commons defence committee hearing last week isn’t going down well among those in Newfoundland and Labrador who rely on the sea for a living. And the remarks may further exacerbate the already testy relationship between the Harper government and the province.
“A one or two foot (wave) on the Ottawa River doesn’t compare to a 60-foot wave in the North Atlantic,” said Shawn Skinner, the province’s natural resources minister who was at the meeting.
The member of Newfoundland’s Conservative government noted rescue times on the Ottawa River would be measured in minutes while in the North Atlantic it can take hours to reach survivors in frigid waters.
Report: Atlantic helicopter crash blamed on a ‘complex web’ of factors, A4
During the Commons hearing, Skinner told Gallant her remarks were offensive.
But the Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MP told the Citizen her comments were misinterpreted. She said she was trying to make the point that the province and others should work together on search and rescue.
“In Ontario we have inland seas, the Great Lakes, and it would never occur to any of us, even up in the Ottawa River, to count on the Coast Guard to come and help us,” Gallant, who sits on the defence committee, explained to the audience at the time.
In Ontario she said rescue resources are pooled and municipalities also have their own boats for rescues as part of a “community effort.”
“I know it would be ideal to have the federal government be there in the 30-minute response time 24 hours a day, but in practicality, we do have to pool our resources,” she told the St. John’s audience. “Just as the oil companies are starting to pitch in because they’re profiting from the resources, so too perhaps should the province think about the benefits that it is obtaining economically from that sector, and figure out a way to pool our resources, federally as well as provincially, and from the private sector.”
In the Citizen interview, Gallant said at no point was she trying to compare the Ottawa River and Great Lakes to the North Atlantic, although she acknowledges that is how some in the room viewed her comments.
“The point I was trying to make was in areas of Ontario we are so far removed from the Coast Guard that we rely on the pooling of resources at all levels to come in an emergency situation,” said Gallant.
“It was misconstrued,” she explained. “It was not intended to be taken the way it was and I do regret that they took it the way it was.”
She said an apology is not needed as those at the meeting eventually came to realize the point she was trying to make.
But Lana Payne, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour, whose members include fishing crews and offshore oil workers, says Gallant’s comments are still seen as insulting. “People couldn’t believe what she said,” explained Payne. “I think there’s this expectation that (MPs) are supposed to know more.”
Gallant’s comments were particularly insensitive, Payne said, since the committee had just heard stories of tragedies at sea, including details of two men who died 15 minutes before the arrival of a rescue helicopter.
Since 1979, 193 fish harvesters have lost their lives at sea. The March 2009 crash of a helicopter into the Atlantic is also still a fresh wound for those in Newfoundland and Labrador. That crash killed 17 people.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
Read more: www.ottawacitizen.com/Gallant+blasted+telling+Newfoundlanders+save+lives/4254755/story.html#ixzz1DZRoGTgI
***ADMINISTRATORS NOTE: Sounds typical of the Harper Government - everyone fend for themselves*
By David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen
February 10, 2011
Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant is under fire for suggesting Newfoundlanders who make their living from the sea take more responsibility for their own lives and not expect to be rescued by the Coast Guard if they run into trouble.
Explaining that those who operate on the Great Lakes and Ottawa River don’t count on the Coast Guard for help, the Ottawa Valley MP told an audience in St. John’s, including those who had lost relatives and fellow workers during maritime accidents, that it’s up to local communities, the province and private companies to make more of an effort to help with rescues and perhaps finance such services.
But her message during a Commons defence committee hearing last week isn’t going down well among those in Newfoundland and Labrador who rely on the sea for a living. And the remarks may further exacerbate the already testy relationship between the Harper government and the province.
“A one or two foot (wave) on the Ottawa River doesn’t compare to a 60-foot wave in the North Atlantic,” said Shawn Skinner, the province’s natural resources minister who was at the meeting.
The member of Newfoundland’s Conservative government noted rescue times on the Ottawa River would be measured in minutes while in the North Atlantic it can take hours to reach survivors in frigid waters.
Report: Atlantic helicopter crash blamed on a ‘complex web’ of factors, A4
During the Commons hearing, Skinner told Gallant her remarks were offensive.
But the Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MP told the Citizen her comments were misinterpreted. She said she was trying to make the point that the province and others should work together on search and rescue.
“In Ontario we have inland seas, the Great Lakes, and it would never occur to any of us, even up in the Ottawa River, to count on the Coast Guard to come and help us,” Gallant, who sits on the defence committee, explained to the audience at the time.
In Ontario she said rescue resources are pooled and municipalities also have their own boats for rescues as part of a “community effort.”
“I know it would be ideal to have the federal government be there in the 30-minute response time 24 hours a day, but in practicality, we do have to pool our resources,” she told the St. John’s audience. “Just as the oil companies are starting to pitch in because they’re profiting from the resources, so too perhaps should the province think about the benefits that it is obtaining economically from that sector, and figure out a way to pool our resources, federally as well as provincially, and from the private sector.”
In the Citizen interview, Gallant said at no point was she trying to compare the Ottawa River and Great Lakes to the North Atlantic, although she acknowledges that is how some in the room viewed her comments.
“The point I was trying to make was in areas of Ontario we are so far removed from the Coast Guard that we rely on the pooling of resources at all levels to come in an emergency situation,” said Gallant.
“It was misconstrued,” she explained. “It was not intended to be taken the way it was and I do regret that they took it the way it was.”
She said an apology is not needed as those at the meeting eventually came to realize the point she was trying to make.
But Lana Payne, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour, whose members include fishing crews and offshore oil workers, says Gallant’s comments are still seen as insulting. “People couldn’t believe what she said,” explained Payne. “I think there’s this expectation that (MPs) are supposed to know more.”
Gallant’s comments were particularly insensitive, Payne said, since the committee had just heard stories of tragedies at sea, including details of two men who died 15 minutes before the arrival of a rescue helicopter.
Since 1979, 193 fish harvesters have lost their lives at sea. The March 2009 crash of a helicopter into the Atlantic is also still a fresh wound for those in Newfoundland and Labrador. That crash killed 17 people.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
Read more: www.ottawacitizen.com/Gallant+blasted+telling+Newfoundlanders+save+lives/4254755/story.html#ixzz1DZRoGTgI