A lawyer representing offshore oil workers says industry will have to step in to improve search and rescue capabilities off the east coast of Newfoundland if the federal government won't.

Lawyer Randal Earle spoke Monday at the launch of the Canada Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board's inquiry into the safety of helicopters used to transport industry workers.

"If there is a gap in safety, if DND does not have the resources or the federal government is not willing to alter the distribution of resources, the people who operate the offshore oil industry have to fill that gap," said Earle, representing more than 700 offshore workers, members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers.

The petroleum board called the inquiry weeks after a helicopter ferrying offshore workers to oil platforms east of St. John's crashed into the ocean March 12, killing 17 people.

Robert Wells, the former Supreme Court judge, is heading up the inquiry into offshore helicopter safety in Newfoundland and Labrador. (CBC)Inquiry Commissioner Robert Wells laid out his mandate at the inquiry on Monday.

He said the Department of National Defence will provide a statement about its search and rescue operations based in Gander, in central Newfoundland, but it would be outside his mandate to comment on what they do.

"DND, the government of Canada search and rescue capabilities — I'm not allowed to examine or inquire into that and I will not," Wells said.

In addition to the military's Gander operation, the oil companies have hired Cougar Helicopter to provide search and rescue work.

Cougar converts passenger helicopters to perform search and rescue when necessary. This isn't the approach recommended by the inquiry into the Ocean Ranger disaster, which killed 84 offshore workers in 1982.

Two decades ago, commissioner Alex Hickman recommended keeping a full-time, fully equipped search and rescue helicopter at the airport nearest an offshore drilling operation. He said the dedicated helicopter could be provided either by government or industry.

The Wells inquiry is scheduled to continue Tuesday with testimony from a representative of the petroleum board, the federal-provincial group that regulates Newfoundland and Labrador's offshore oil industry.