Transport committee  Not if you have a workable set of criteria to do it with, and indeed we're working on a minor works policy right now that would do that. It sets up a number of criteria: sinuosity, how quickly it turns, depth, width, and the number of deadfall going over. We're talking very small waterways to start to pull this stuff off, waterways that right now require the forestry industry, for example, which goes into an area it wants to cut every spring, to build 3,000 temporary bridges over these little creeks that nobody has ever taken a canoe or a kayak into and would never ever want to because it takes so long to get into them.

Transport committee  First of all, the port authorities are already exempted from our act in accordance with their own legislation when they're building the work themselves. Where we currently get involved is if they have a tenant who decides he wants to build a wharf, and all of a sudden the tenant inside the port authority boundary must come to us for approval.

Transport committee  No.

Transport committee  I personally don't see why that can't happen if they would be willing to take it on. I think the biggest obstacle, in a way, is our legislation, and the last modification, amendment, or change doesn't allow it. We'd love to do it. Indeed, we've got many agencies that we work with hand in hand.

Transport committee  There lies the frustration of the farmer who wants to put a culvert in to get drainage from one field to another, or the municipality that's having great difficulty and simply wants to repair a bridge. I do not understand, in our legislation, why we would treat a foot bridge going over a golf course creek the same as the Confederation Bridge going to P.E.I.

Transport committee  That would need to be done. You're right, we have the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Great Lakes, common boundaries going through these areas. We have crossings going over the waterways, which are regulated. There is a new International Bridges and Tunnels Act in place that's relevant to this point.

Transport committee  I doubt if there would be conflict, but if there was one, we would have to deal with it. That's what we need to know for any proposed change to legislation. We need to bring these things to light.

Transport committee  An application will arrive in the door at a government department that has a potential responsibility. It could come in initially through a Fisheries and Oceans application because there's a concern or knowledge on the part of the proponent that there is fish habitat involved. Most things that go in the water have fish habitat involved.

Transport committee  Sure. An application for anything arrives in the door.... Is this the process you're speaking of, Mr. Shipley?

Transport committee  We're currently reviewing our program in conjunction with our environmental assessment group and our aboriginal consultation group--because we three interact, as you can tell from our paperwork, on virtually every single file--to determine, with the resources we currently have on hand, how we can most efficiently and effectively discharge our responsibilities to Canadians.

Transport committee  I don't have a specific percentage, but I did want to address that point. Very few applications are refused actually; it is very, very low. I don't have the number on that, but our job is to attempt to find ways to share the use of the waterways and therefore to work with proponents, to work with Canadians who just want to build a dock or put a swim raft out front, to find a way to do it safely.

Transport committee  Again, we have a group that comes in and carries over. We have a group of files that is completed that following year, and we have new ones that arrive.

Transport committee  I cannot agree with you more. As a matter of fact, with all of our clients that we list here and every single one of our stakeholder groups, there are two things they comment on. And it doesn't matter whether you're the provincial authority, the municipal authority, or the guy who just wants to put the dock in front of the cottage, they comment on the delay.

Transport committee  Yes, in 2003.

Transport committee  I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I can tell you that the second concern of all of our clients and our staff is the backlog. The backlog is severe; the backlog is what causes the delay. Each of our officers has in excess of 100 files they must be working on each year.