Souris officials are re-intensifying their efforts to have the Canadian Coast Guard base relocate from Charlottetown to the Kings County deep sea port.
Since leaving its location on the Charlottetown waterfront to make way for construction of a convention centre near the Delta hotel, the Coast Guard and its services are now housed in three temporary locations around the city.
The federal department of fisheries was also forced to move as its former headquarters was demolished to clear the site for the multi-million dollar convention centre.
Souris mayor Dave MacDonald and Souris-Elmira MLA Colin LaVie told The Guardian on Sunday that having the coast guard in Souris would benefit the town and makes more sense than having the service in Charlottetown.
MacDonald said the move would make more sense from a safety and logistical point of view, with Souris being the closest port to access the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where the majority of the coast guard's work is done.
"The Souris harbour is one hour away from the shipping lanes where the coast guard is most likely to respond to an emergency," said MacDonald. "Charlottetown is four hours away (from the lanes.)"
"We also have a much better facility and loads more room, which Charlottetown doesn't have anymore," he added.
The coast guard, which celebrates its 50th year of operating in Canada this year, has been housed in three temporary locations throughout Charlottetown and Stratford since work on the convention centre began.
The approximately 32 employees are spread out at the old Cabinetmaster plant on Kensington Road, the former coast guard base on Queen Street and in the CGI Building in Stratford.
Darren Gaudet, area director for the coast guard, recently said the aim is to find a permanent home by 2014 although he also added that no decision has been made on a location and that the tendering process has yet to start.
The coast guard must vacate the Kensington Road location by September 2012 because another business is expanding and moving in to that building.
LaVie agreed with MacDonald's suggestion of Souris being a great location for the coast guard.
"Definitely," said Lavie. "We'd like to have it in Souris, we've got exactly what they want."
Many Souris residents were thrown out of work last year when Newfoundland-based Ocean Choice International announced it would shut down its processing plant in Souris last April. More than 300 employees lost their job, with many of them from Souris.
LaVie has been vocal about the negative effects the closure had on the town and said that the coast guard relocating to Souris would help the local economy.
"We've got to get anything up here to start circulating some capital," he said.
MacDonald said that while Souris isn't in as dire an economic crisis as some suggest, the town does need a boost to start rebounding from the OCI closure and the coast guard is just the tonic to start the turnaround.
A senior P.E.I. cabinet member said earlier this month that it remains highly unlikely OCI will ever reopen its huge plant in Souris.
The province and company are busy suing each other with lawsuits involving millions of dollars following the plant closure.
MacDonald has already argued the case of relocating the coast guard base with National Revenue Minister Gail Shea, P.E.I.'s representative in the federal cabinet. The coast guard comes under federal jurisdiction.
MacDonald pointed out that working with the coast guard is a well-paying job on P.E.I.
"We're not talking about people earning $10 an hour," he said. "If you bring in one person like that into the community, it's like creating two or three jobs."
The benefits of relocating to Souris were brought up by the town's harbour authority in 2009, when the convention centre was still in the discussion stage.
Denis Thibodeau, the harbour authority's chairman, had described the town as an obvious choice for a number of "strategic and logistical reasons."
In addition to the harbour's proximity to the gulf, the town is also the home port to the yeR-round ferry service between Souris and Iles de la Madeleine.
Souris is also close to the ferry services between Wood Islands-Pictou, N.S. and North Sydney, N.S. and Port Aux Basques/Argentia, NL., which would be an advantage in the event of a search-and-rescue situation.
In addition, Thibodeau said the harbour has more water-depth than Charlottetown and remains ice-free for much of the year.
That ice-free factor has increased during the past two years, added MacDonald.
"Over the last two years you could get into the harbour with a fishing boat."
Thibodeau also argued that the town's existing small search-and-rescue coast guard force could "complement the relocation and provide some administrative synergies."
MacDonald said the only argument making sense for Charlottetown keeping the coast guard is that many of the employees are now established in the city.
"And I appreciate that, but other than that, there's no logical reason to have the coast guard in Charlottetown," he said. "It gets a little frustrating after a while when you know you're right. This isn't a question of politics, it's safety."
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