The federal government continues to defend the closure of the Kitsilano Coast Guard base.

At an announcement in North Vancouver, Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose insists safety will not be affected by the base closing – which happened without warning on Tuesday.

Ambrose says the decision to drop $6-million in Newfoundland the next day was to rebuild an existing Coast Guard base.

But it was pointed out to her Kits is also an existing base.

"Those are decisions made by the Coast Guard themselves on advice to the government. … And my understanding is that they feel very, very confident that the safety of mariners is not going to be impacted."

Ambrose says she didn't think the closing the base was done 'suddenly' and no one should be surprised.

"Well my understanding was that was a decision made quite some time ago and everyone in the region was aware of it and also of course this was on the advice of the coast guard that there was sufficient resources in the area to manage..to make sure that the safety of mariners is provided."

North Vancouver MP Andrew Saxton also defended the closure.

"As the Minister said it was the Coast Guard that the made the decision ultimately that they felt comfortable that the resources could be moved to other locations and still provide the same level of service."

Saxton abruptly ended the scrum with reporters making an exit after just a minute and half as questions were still being shouted at him

Andrew Saxton repeated those Tory talking points when asked a little later about the sudden closing of Kits base by CKNW's Sean Leslie on The World Today, before suddenly, again, pulling the plug on the live interview.

"Keep in mind that the Vancouver harbour will still have the resources..the best resources for search and rescue in the country."

"So it sounds like you didn't object to this within caucus?"

".....Thank you very much for your interview today."