Fisheries Committee on April 16th, 2008

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

But along with that is the very serious safety issue, of course. This was taken in beautiful weather, but what happens when there's a gale on, a storm? What happens when you're out at sea and you have no other choice? That's why we want people like you here. And we feel that this type of funding would eliminate that.

To Darrell, I know that when you dredge you have a number of problems. Number one is getting the dollars. Getting the dollars is always the big job. But then, when you get the dollars, it's sometimes a major job to deal with what you dredge out, because the environmentalists can become involved.

I'm aware, as you are, but I'd like you to explain, as briefly as you can, what was done there and what an asset that would be.

[Darrell Lesperance, Chairman, Naufrage Harbour Authority]

We did have the inside of the basin dredged. It came out good. We worked with the environment people and everyone, and we found a spot to put all the dredged oil. That worked out very good but it took a number of years to do it.

It's good there now, but we have a problem getting to the basin now. It's major work. It seems like it takes an awful long time to get that stuff off and gone. But now we have to get to the basin.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Very good.

I'm going to let my colleagues ask a few questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Fabian Manning]

Mr. Simms.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

To say that this is unique is maybe a little bit of an understatement. I don't know of anything in my area that resembles this at all. It really is quite something. At first glance I thought to myself, “Well, dredging must have an incredibly high price tag.”

When was the last time you did dredging?

[Darrell Lesperance]

The particular area we're talking about has to be done at least two to three times a year.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

And each time it's how much?

[Darrell Lesperance]

Right now we're looking at getting it back out of there. We have a different problem there now; we don't know if we can get the truck in to get the dredged oil out. But we're looking at between $20,000 and $30,000 for this area.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

You don't know if you can get the what...?

[Darrell Lesperance]

Our wharf's in a situation where some of the wharf has deteriorated, and we have to haul it out via truck. We don't know if we're going to be able to get the truck in there this spring, right now, to do it.

This is what we have for water right now. It's a dangerous situation.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

It seems to me there's quite a bit of money, if we go into this, in tandem with both infrastructure and dredging, there's no doubt about it.

With the mouth of the opening there, certainly when stormy weather happens you must have a hard time getting some of these boats in there. On a high sea, they just wouldn't be able to get in there.

[Darrell Lesperance]

It's very, very dangerous.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Have you had extensive damage as a result of it?

[Gérard Steele]

It's a rare boat that hasn't collided.

[Darrell Lesperance]

We basically run the gauntlet every day. It's the wind.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

And obviously, given where you are, you wouldn't consider building some infrastructure outside of this map here?

[Gérard Steele]

That's what we'd like to see done, an extension to that, to get it wider and deeper.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

But doesn't that cause problems otherwise? Justify this extension to me. I'm only asking out of ignorance; it's not so much that I'm trying to pigeonhole it. The extension would do what as a benefit?

[Lewis Miller, Vice-President, Naufrage Harbour Authority]

It would put us out to deeper water. The Naufrage Harbour is on the front page....

[Gérard Steele]

Basically that long extension behaves like a snow fence. It gathers the sand behind it. It causes a problem. If we had the both of them at equal distance, then you wouldn't get that buildup.... We believe that. I mean, obviously there's got to be some engineering things there too.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

That's a good point and one I didn't take into account. That's a very good point.

How many boats did you say?

[Gérard Steele]

We have 76 boats all the time; they are full-time fishermen.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

All full-time, no recreation, no transient boats?

[Gérard Steele]

In the summertime, when the tuna season opens, we get boats from all over the Island--anyone with a tuna licence. We've been fortunate the last few years; the tuna have been accumulating reasonably close to our harbour, so it makes an attractive place for....

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

How much do you charge on your fees?