Fisheries Committee on April 16th, 2008

[Lewis Miller]

Extend the wharf out and we won't have the problem.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

How often would you have to dredge if you extended the wharf?

[Lewis Miller]

We may not have to at all.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Do you know that?

[Lewis Miller]

Obviously there would be a one-time dredging when it was done.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Have studies been done to show that your theory is right that that will solve the dredging problem?

[Lewis Miller]

There's no study, but I can say that there's no engineer in the world that could come here and give any more evidence than what the three people sitting here could give. We've watched it since we were kids. If you look at the top picture in Naufrage Harbour and you look at the east pier, or the pier on the right going out, you can see that it's in the breakers and just barely at the top of the shore. It's just common sense to say that it's going to fill in; you'll have to get out farther.

In my opinion, the structure was designed wrong originally. Having a lot of experience with how sand works around currents and tides and moons and stuff, the sand travels from west to east, because the prevailing tide is going east. If the east structure was out parallel with the west structure, what would happen is the sand would go by and land east of the east structure, which is out of our way. That's common knowledge to the fellows that are there and see it all the time.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

In the written presentation that I saw on the table here, near the end it says that it seems like the department is downloading its responsibilities more and more. What responsibilities are you referring to there? Can you comment further on that statement?

[Darrell Lesperance]

Well, as harbour manager...we have to take care of our little maintenance in the harbour. We have to take care of our electrical, our water, our phone, and our lights; we pay for all that ourselves. We've even hired a night watchman that we have to pay for now. So if anything comes up at all, we really haven't got the funding for it any more.

I had one person say to me last year that maybe we should put the harbour dues up to pay for these little projects. To me, that's not acceptable.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

I guess that would be an interesting debate.

As you know, there are several purposes for the harbour authority program. I guess there are pros and cons. The pros were that users would have more say on what went on in their harbours, that the fees they collected would stay there, rather than going into a big pot and maybe never coming back. I guess the downside is that the expectation was that the harbour authorities would take care of what was called minor maintenance, whatever that means. I understand your frustration.

Mr. Calkins, if you have anything....

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

I'll turn it over to the chair. I think he has a comment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Fabian Manning]

I just want to take a couple of minutes here out of our time. I've been informed that Minister Hearn has just announced an emergency dredging project for Naufrage Harbour today--just a few moments ago, as a matter of fact. Your presence here may have helped that. It will allow fish harvesters in eastern P.E.I. to load traps and safely prepare for the spring lobster fishery. I'll read from it:

The Honourable Loyola Hearn, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, announced that the federal government is undertaking emergency dredging of the entrance channel at Naufrage harbour in Kings County.

“Fish harvesters must have enough water in the channel to safely navigate”.... “That is why we're taking swift action to dredge at Naufrage to ensure the harbour is ready in time for the opening of the lobster season.”

The entrance channel at Naufrage has infilled to the point that there is not sufficient water for vessels to navigate safely when empty, much less when loaded down with lobster traps. An area between the breakwaters will be dredged to ensure fish harvesters have adequate clearance at low tide. Work will start as soon as possible and will be complete before the May 1 opening of the lobster season.

This project will be implemented by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans as part of its Small Craft Harbours Program in cooperation with the Harbour Authority which manages and operates the facilities....

The Government of Canada understands the importance of small craft harbours to communities across the country. Since February 2006, the permanent annual funding for the Small Craft Harbours Program has been increased by $20 million, with a further $10 million commitment made in Budget 2008 over two years for repairs and environmental cleanup....

Their contact information is for Moncton, New Brunswick.

I just wanted to let you know that.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Darrell, as you know, you and the harbour authority were pushing for this, as I was, for a long time. You can see that if you work together and keep pressure on them, finally it can make something happen. It just shows that when you put the pressure on the government and on us, it can happen. You have made a great presentation here today. It's wonderful to get the dredging money, but we want to aim that and put the dollars where they should be--on the extension--so that we will not end up having to spend these dollars every year. If you put the extension on both sides of the wharf, then this will not be there. We will continue to push and make sure those things happen. I'll assure you that down the road they will.

Thank you very much, boys.

[The Chair, Conservative, Fabian Manning]

I'm sure it's good news for you and everybody who's involved. I just want to thank you for your presentation here this morning and, on behalf of the committee, thank you for the time and effort that you put in as volunteers on the harbour authority, and to thank the harbour authorities throughout the province. I know there has been some discussion around the fact of harbour authorities going into place.... I remember I was one of the founding members of our harbour authority in my home community, and we were also helped. If we didn't become part of this package, we were going to be left out in the cold. So it was important to be brought in to the harbour authority model. It has proven, to be honest with you, in many cases to work out quite well, but there are always concerns and issues.

Thank you for your presentation.

The meeting is adjourned.