Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to an oral question asked by Mr. Gargan, MLA for Deh Cho, on December 2, with respect to the cost of the Coast Guard rescue.
On December 2, 1992, the Member for Deh Cho asked the Minister of Transportation if the department intended to recover the costs it incurred on October 23, 1992, when the MV Merv Hardie went to the rescue of the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Ekaloo which had suffered the misfortune of running aground on a sandbar on the Mackenzie River.
The costs of the Department of Transportation in this incident were small and the attempt to recover its costs would do much to damage the positive and cooperative relationship the department enjoys with the Coast Guard.
Mariners have a long-standing professional code which requires the master of every ship, on receiving a message of distress from another ship, to proceed with all speed to offer its every assistance. The captain and crew of the MV Merv Hardie did exactly as expected of them when they received the Ekaloo's message that it had run aground. The crews of the department's ships would depend on the same unhesitant response from any nearby ship to their signal of distress.
The MV Merv Hardie was away from the Fort Providence ferry crossing for approximately seven and a half hours at a cost, over and above its usual running costs, of approximately $50 for fuel. The ferry's operating costs are about $200 per hour. The total cost of the rescue operation came to less than $2,000.
We should not forget that the Cost Guard spent several hundred thousand dollars last hear helping this government to evaluate the possibility of access from the sea to Pelly Bay, an expenditure that will save the GNWT substantial amounts in the annual cost of resupply to the community.
Had the rescue been expensive, the department might have good reason to consider recovery. In this event, it was not. There is little to be gained in seeking compensation from the Coast Guard.
I have another return, Mr. Speaker.