Fisheries Committee on April 16th, 2008

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

You say you have 36 boats in your harbour. How many board members are on your harbour authority?

[Norman Peters]

There are seven of us.

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

They're all fishermen who own these boats?

[Norman Peters]

Yes.

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

What's your mechanism for deciding how much you should charge for berthage fees?

[Norman Peters]

It would pretty well correspond with what the other harbours charge if we didn't have night watchman fees--around $400 or $450--but we feel a night watchman is vital, even if he's not much good as a deterrent with the sign there and the lights on, that sort of thing. Some fishermen say no, don't bother with him, but I say I think he's a deterrent, because you get a lot of people in the summertime, and you don't know who you're going to get.

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

So each boat pays about $400 a year?

[Norman Peters]

Each boat pays $650.

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

They pay $650 per year. And you don't employ a harbourmaster?

[Norman Peters]

We can't afford one. It would be great to hire someone--hey, I can help this harbour. I can get it going well for you guys, but I want a wage. I'm not doing it for nothing.

I came down here today for nothing. I don't ask to get paid. Money's too tight.

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

So it's just the night watchman that you hire.

[Norman Peters]

And there are fire dues, of course. We're charged fire dues.

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

Are your rates similar to those in other harbours that are close to you?

[Norman Peters]

They are, pretty well, but that would be without the night watchman. With the night watchman taken off, it would be pretty well in line with all the other harbours.

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

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Fabian Manning]

Thank you, Mr. Kamp.

Thank you, Mr. Peters, for your testimony here. You're certainly speaking from the heart, and there's no doubt about your love for the fishery. We certainly thank you for coming this morning and for presenting your thoughts to us. Thank you.

[Norman Peters]

Thank you very much for coming to P.E.I. and listening to some of us old fishermen.

[The Chair, Conservative, Fabian Manning]

We'll take a five-minute break to get ready for our next witness.

[The Chair, Conservative, Fabian Manning]

I want to welcome our witnesses once again.

For those of you who may not have been around earlier, just to give you an idea, my name is Fabian Manning. I'm the member of Parliament for the riding of Avalon in Newfoundland and Labrador. I'm the chair of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, and we are that committee.

Membership of the committee is made up of the four political parties in the House of Commons, namely the Conservatives, the Liberals, the Bloc Québécois, and the NDP. We bring Peter Stoffer from Nova Scotia along just to make sure we fill the void.

Last fall we began a process of study of the small craft harbours program of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Last fall we heard from people within the department, the regional directors throughout Canada, and we presented an interim report to the House. We are in the process now of completing that study in order to present a final report to the House of Commons prior to the summer break.

Our purpose in travelling to Atlantic Canada and Quebec this week is to hear from people like you who are on the ground, the harbour authorities themselves, about the concerns and issues you may have with regard to infrastructure, the operation of the harbour authorities themselves, training requirements, and pretty well whatever comes to mind. Consider this to be a conversation down on the wharf, a chat. Most of the members here, including me, represent rural areas of Canada and have a very great interest in our hearings and in hearing from you, so feel very comfortable.

I understand that Mr. Steele will be presenting the remarks on behalf of the harbour authority.

Mr. Steele, the floor is yours.

[Gérard Steele, Presenter, Naufrage Harbour Authority]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

First of all, on behalf of Naufrage Harbour Authority, I'd like to extend our condolences to Mr. Raynald Blais on the loss of his constituents in the tragic accident a few weeks ago.

Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Gérard Steele. I'm a fisherman from the port of Naufrage, and I'll be giving the presentation this morning. With me is Darrel Lesperance, the president of the harbour authority, and Lewis Miller, vice-president of Naufrage Harbour Authority.

First, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the committee for making it possible for us to appear before you here today, as we feel it's important to explain the conditions and operational needs of our harbour. As I'm sure you are aware, every port has its own challenges.

Just to give you a short history of our harbour, we became a harbour authority and assumed operational management duties approximately ten years ago. Since that time our committee, which is made up of volunteer fishers, has made progress in acquiring from small craft harbours budgets to repair and upgrade some portions of the wharf and also to do dredging, which is required on an ongoing basis.

[The Chair, Conservative, Fabian Manning]

Thank you, Mr. Steele.

Our next step now is to go around the table for question period.

Mr. MacAulay will be starting off our questions. You have ten minutes.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Steele, it's a pleasure to be with you today. We've done a number of things over the years. And Mr. Lesperance and Mr. Miller, it's....

What we're trying to do here is convince government how important, number one, your wharves and many other wharves across this province are to the economy of Prince Edward Island--what they mean to communities, what happens if we don't have them, what happens if they're consolidated, what happens if the fishery is.... Your hear these types of words, and this is what we want to make sure does not happen, because with that we have no rural Prince Edward Island.

I want to share my time, so I don't want to say too much.

I would like to ask you, Gérard, about the extension of the wharves. You feel that this overall would save dollars in the long run, with the saving on dredging. Is that correct? And there's also the safety.

[Gérard Steele]

Yes. Right now our harbour must be dredged at least twice a year. If you look at the pictures, you can see Mr. Lesperance standing right in the centre of it. As we know, he's not all that tall, and he's standing knee-deep in water there.

So we can't even get out right now. We feel that if we had the wharf extended out to a little deeper water and equal lengths, it would prevent that sandbar from accumulating. If you look at the pictures, you can see the bar right at the end of the short wharf. It's fully exposed.

[Lawrence MacAulay]

So is Mr. Lesperance.

[Gérard Steele]

Basically we could fish there now with a canoe, perhaps.