Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thanks, folks, for being here. Some of you are really starting to look familiar.
I will go with you, Genevieve, if I may.
I recently had the opportunity to spend half a day on McNabs Island, nestled right in the centre of Halifax harbour. They have an incredible group of volunteers, a society called Friends of McNabs, who work to take care of the site. They spend their entire year fundraising. Every penny goes towards keeping this place in the condition that it's in. The island is taken care of by the society, three private landowners, the province, and Parks Canada, and right in the middle we have Fort McNab, a national historic site.
Connected to this site are several heritage properties that are basically falling apart. Three historic houses are filled with opportunity but are basically being left to rot. It's a major missed opportunity. This is, again, sitting right in the middle of Halifax harbour. It's provincial and it's federal, and I expect most of the problems are caused by the cost of rehabilitating this facility.
There's a former tea house on the property that is a missed opportunity as a revenue generator but also as an interpretive centre. It was great to be there, but it was so sad to see this decrepit national historic site. At this committee we've all talked about partnerships, whether they be municipal with federal, provincial with federal, or societies—like Friends of McNabs—working with our federal government.
Genevieve, how can Parks Canada better work with provinces and independent heritage groups like Friends of McNabs to ensure that Canada's built heritage is taken care of and that we piggyback, so that we take advantage of economic opportunities to ensure the long-term sustainability of these properties?
As great as it was to be there—and it was amazing to feel the history and have an interpreter tell me about what happened on this island and what it once looked like—to see it now was very sad.