Fisheries committee  Let me say that it is certainly not restricted to surplus lighthouses. The Newfoundland and B.C. lights are operating lights, and so are most of the Nova Scotia ones. Divestiture is a program that DFO already has and seems to be operating. This might help it become more nationa

Fisheries committee  Yes, you start the process. The process starts with the public. Right now, what's been happening is the public has not been involved. DFO transferred our light station to Parks Canada, and we read about it in the paper. DFO, of which you are the august parliamentary secretary, ca

Fisheries committee  Well, I cannot ever speak on behalf of former senators. But I understand that since this bill has the backing of the government and has been certainly backed by the Liberal senators--it wouldn't have gotten through if it weren't for the Liberal senators--I can only assume that it

Fisheries committee  He has already asked all the questions.

Fisheries committee  I realize your concern. You're overlooking the fact that right now communities cannot do this; they cannot contribute. I'm told that Mike Forrestall's son Tom is dying to go down to offer his services to paint a community lighthouse in Nova Scotia. There is no way to do it now be

Fisheries committee  First of all, many amendments have been incorporated in this bill over the time. The only two that I understand are being proposed by DFO.... One is to add wording to the preamble, for interpretive reasons, that says: AND WHEREAS it is important to provide access to heritage l

Fisheries committee  Yes. Just remember, access is not as big a problem in Nova Scotia. I have a list here of the 125 stations where access is a problem. In Newfoundland and Labrador, of course, there are 26 light stations only accessible by water or helicopter. Nova Scotia has 34. You have a lot o

Fisheries committee  First of all, I would like to thank you very much for suggesting an important change to the present bill, which is to restrict it to federal jurisdiction. In earlier versions of the bill, you opposed the wording on the grounds that it should be restricted, and I thank you for tha

Fisheries committee  It has no mandate. Money is a question of what you use budgeted money on. That's a different--

Fisheries committee  Never enough.

Fisheries committee  There are two parts to your question. A senator cannot introduce a money bill, so—

Fisheries committee  No, but for the record, you asked about—

Fisheries committee  Yes, and on two occasions, the House of Commons Speaker has said, “This is not a money bill”. When you're asking about allotting specific dollars, that is in your hands, but I'm loath to do that, because if you put a dollar figure, it'll be spent, and in many of these lights, th

Fisheries committee  Again, if it's an operating light, it may not be a heritage site. It's going to take time before these heritage sites are designated, beyond the ones that are already national historic sites, or designated as historic sites, so I can't give you the answer you're looking for. My

Fisheries committee  The intent is to meet Treasury Board rules, which, as you've heard, means they have to have a common public purpose. Every single light in B.C.--the province I'm most familiar with--is an operating light. We couldn't imagine them being disposed of to private interests. I don't kn