Thank you very much.
Evidence of meeting #58 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was budget.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #58 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was budget.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:55 a.m.
Regional Director, Small Craft Harbours, Quebec Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
To answer Mr. Asselin's specific questions, we take a very transparent approach with port authorities and users when it comes to sharing the information we have about the facilities, the priorities and the reasons why we sometimes make one decision rather than another. This can also be done in the context of the committee's study. The department will have to see how it can coordinate everything to give you specific answers to your questions.
As far as I am concerned, the information is known. There is no doubt that we are very familiar with our territory and the state of our facilities. We are able to explain the direction we want to take for the benefit of commercial fishers, to give them the best possible service.
In the case of projects such as the one at Rivière-au-Tonnerre, in my opening remarks, I said that the maintenance deficit was increasing all the time. The crux of the problem is the rate of recapitalization and it is a problem we face at various levels in Quebec. With respect to the rate of recapitalization, that is the money available to the department for major investments of over a million dollars, given that our facilities are between 25 and 35 years old and are at the end of their useful lifespan, it is going to take several decades to do all the reconstruction work required in Quebec.
If we keep the current rate of recapitalization, we will definitely experience more and more safety and accessibility problems. They are going to increase, because the infrastructure does not necessarily deteriorate in a linear fashion. The process speeds up over time. These are factors that need to be taken into account. If arrangements are made with the department, we can discuss some of these situations and explain them in detail for the benefit of committee members.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerald Keddy
Thank you for that, Monsieur Bouchard.
Mr. Calkins.
Excuse me. I bypassed Mr. Stoffer. That was a mistake on my part, and I apologize for that.
Mr. Stoffer.
Noon
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
No worries, and I was going to congratulate you. On Saturday it is your tenth anniversary as a member of Parliament, sir. Congratulations.
Noon
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
I just have one quick question, and then for the remainder of my time you could answer, in the spirit of parliamentary cooperation, Mr. MacAulay's questions as well.
My question for you is this. In Nunavut, would the discussions--I'm not even sure there are discussions--regarding building facilities to help those communities develop fishing opportunities fall under your purview, or does it fall under someone else's department to answer those types of questions? If there are discussions ongoing, how are they going, and where would the money come from to build those types of facilities?
If you could take the time to answer Mr. MacAulay's question in the remainder of my time, that would be great. Thank you.
Noon
Acting Regional Director, Small Craft Harbours, Central and Arctic Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Constructing harbours in Nunavut would fall or could fit within the small craft harbours mandate, which is to support the commercial fishing industry. As we all know, this is a new emerging fishery and therefore there is no infrastructure in Nunavut.
The next part was....
Noon
NDP
Noon
Acting Regional Director, Small Craft Harbours, Central and Arctic Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
There are active discussions. Most of the discussions at this time are happening in headquarters. I understand that the department is discussing this issue with Industry Canada to see if there are some other opportunities to get some funds.
Noon
Regional Director, Small Craft Harbours, Newfoundland and Labrador Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
The first part of the question related to the value of harbour authorities. First, I should say I haven't been around that long. I've been around a while, but I haven't been around since the beginning of the harbour authority program.
Noon
Regional Director, Small Craft Harbours, Newfoundland and Labrador Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
That's right, that was in 1987. In any event, harbour authorities are providing more effective delivery of the services the ultimate the customers of the program receive. The fishers, the small-boat and the large-boat harbour users, have over 600 non-profit organizations out there, making the local decisions about the operational aspects of the individual harbours. You can't have it any better than that. These decisions can't be made in a centralized, public-servant kind of environment. So we've got those. In terms of the operations and the level of service, yes, the users are paying for those services and the level of service is being tailored to the resources each individual harbour authority is able to generate from users. So I think it's certainly been a success on the operations side.
On the infrastructure side, when it comes to performing maintenance and repair work, we've got a special authority that the minister's granted to the program through Treasury Board, where we can sole-source construction contracts to harbour authorities up to $40,000. This is used quite effectively in all regions. We've spoken about the fact that you don't necessarily need the full weight of a large government common-service organization at play. You can sole-source the work directly to the harbour authorities, and they can find the most effective way to do it and they can partner with and get funding from HRSD and other sources.
Noon
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerald Keddy
It's the NDP time, Mr. MacAulay, and he's answering the question.
Noon
Regional Director, Small Craft Harbours, Newfoundland and Labrador Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
That was your question, I think.
I think we are satisfied that there's a lot of value in the harbour authorities.
The $20 million has been added to the program for this year and on an ongoing basis. Is that what the...? I'm aware of that. Can you restate the question, to help me out?
Noon
Conservative
Noon
Liberal
Lawrence MacAulay Liberal Cardigan, PE
A motion was put through in the House that the $20 million that was there would become part of the base funding, plus $15 million more, which would mean the $20 million plus $15 million was $35 million. All I wanted to do was find out if the $35 million was put in your base funding.
Noon
Regional Director, Small Craft Harbours, Newfoundland and Labrador Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
The information I have is that the $20 million was put into base funding.
Noon
Regional Director, Small Craft Harbours, Newfoundland and Labrador Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
That's correct.
Noon
Conservative
Noon
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Wetaskiwin, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, gentlemen, for coming in today. I'm going to be directing most of my questions to Mr. Kathan because I am a member of Parliament from the central and Arctic region, and in the spirit of “if you build it they will come”, if we built some small craft harbours in my riding maybe the waterfront property would come with it eventually, because I have to drive a long way to get to the beach these days.
When you were giving your presentation at the start, you said 16 sites were identified in the region where 25 or more fishers could access a harbour. Could you give me a synopsis? Do you know where those particular places are? Do you have a list you can provide to me?
12:05 p.m.
Acting Regional Director, Small Craft Harbours, Central and Arctic Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I don't have a list, and we have not done a comprehensive analysis of each one. The fishery has evolved in a number of these sites. On the back-side of Lake Winnipeg they have remote sites that are only fly-in or by-vessel access. They're trying to relocate their fish plants where there is road access, of course to reduce their costs and increase their viability. In other cases, there has never been any infrastructure, or very limited infrastructure. No other provincial or municipal government provides that infrastructure. Small craft harbours is a significant player in harbours in the prairies. Other than maybe parks, there's very limited infrastructure.
We looked at locations where there are at least 25 or more fishers. Of course there are other locations where there might be say 15 fishers who would be interested in a harbour as well. But if we were to prioritize, we looked at those that were over 15.
I want to mention that relative to the cost in some regions where there are high tides, our costs are relatively low on a per-fisher basis or per-job-created basis.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
