Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I imagine you'll continue to be generous with the time that is allotted to us.
First, I am very much interested in the small craft harbours issue for various reasons, and I think your presentation today provides me with another one. Without going back over what I've previously said on the subject, I would like to cite a comment by Mr. Asselin that I've used in certain speeches. In fact, one wonders whether the dock is attached to the boat or the boat is attached to the dock. This kind of situation is terrible and ridiculous. I've said it on a number of occasions, and I will continue to say it.
Now you add another dimension to this issue when you talk about the 5,000 volunteers in Canada who give their time and, ultimately, money. You clearly mentioned that the department did not have to provide approximately $25 million because your work makes it possible to get that money.
Unfortunately, the government makes it so that these volunteers, who are concerned about the small craft harbours issue, are frustrated and exhausted, and when people are frustrated and exhausted, they may give up. If they feel abandoned, they will have no choice but to abandon as well. In my view, we have now reached that point.
I know very well that the committee will continue its work, and I'm going to ensure that we keep up the pressure with regard to this morning's improvisation concerning the $20 million—I call that improvisation. You were here at the meeting yesterday, and the people from the department knew it. You were the main people concerned by the small craft harbours issue and you were stunned, as I was, to learn that nothing was provided for in the budget with regard to the $20 million. This morning, in an improvised manner, we learned that—I want to check this first—the $20 million will probably stay in the budget. You can never be too vigilant.
I'd like to hear your comments on this acute frustration. I recently spoke to a harbour authority chair, and he feels, as you said earlier, very bad about his fishermen colleagues who wound up blaming him because the department doesn't provide him with enough money to address the needs of his harbour authority.
I get the impression that, in Quebec, the elastic has snapped among volunteers, and the harbour authority people have criticized the situation at a press conference. We shouldn't go through that anymore.
I'd like to hear your comments on this aspect that we can characterize as new, because it's not because we didn't know it. However, I think it's important to examine the situation in this way; that is to say that, as regards the harbour authorities and the small craft harbours issue, there are some parliamentarians, fishermen and communities that are frustrated, but there are also volunteers who are increasingly frustrated and who may well give up.