Adjournment Proceedings – Airport Security

Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, certainly when we lost the RCMP presence at the Victoria airport, the Victoria Airport Authority said it found the presence of the RCMP extremely important to the airport. It is hard to quantify the benefit of having officers present because, as the airport authority officials noted at the time in the Times Colonist, their mere presence at the airport may in fact have offset and prevented crimes from occurring.

With all respect to the hon. parliamentary secretary, I suggest to him that his three tiers are not enough. We have to have airport security as a priority and border security as a priority.

When the unions that represent border service agents say they think smugglers will get the upper hand, Canadians should be worried.

When the RCMP officers are pulled from our airports for austerity reasons, I think we should all be concerned. It is a small amount of prudence for a large amount of benefit.

Pierre Poilievre: Mr. Speaker, the RCMP as the police of jurisdiction will continue a police presence at the Kelowna and Victoria airports with routine patrols and in response to 911 emergency calls for service. I assure the member that the RCMP is well equipped, well trained and well positioned to continue to carry out this essential function. We will support our national police force in so doing.

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