Okay. Great.
I certainly want to thank members of Parliament for extending this invitation to us to be here and contribute to your review of the small craft harbours program. We certainly value and appreciate your interest in the program.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, the fishing industry accounts for almost one-half of the fishing vessels. And almost one-third of the landings in the entire Atlantic fishery are in Newfoundland and Labrador. We've got 26,000 people employed in the province in the harvesting and processing sectors.
With respect to small craft harbours, there are 376 fishing harbours and one recreational harbour in Newfoundland and Labrador that are under the responsibility of the small craft harbours. A total of 246 of these are being managed by 204 harbour authorities. This represents fully 35% of the harbour authority-managed harbours in Canada that are located in Newfoundland and Labrador.
As another point of interest, within four ridings in Newfoundland and Labrador--of which Mr. Matthews' is one--fully 33% of the harbour authorities in Canada are in these four ridings.
We know that small craft harbours is a valued and important program in many coastal communities. It serves as an important and visible aspect of the federal government's presence in those communities. I don't need to tell members that.
I know there are a number of national program challenges that were outlined for you on Tuesday and I won't go through those. I'll just focus on perhaps one that's of particular significance in Newfoundland and Labrador, and that's that we certainly have a large number of small and medium-sized harbours. This is very much the product of our geographically dispersed fishery over a large coastline where it's not always practical, reasonable, safe, or economically viable for that matter to insist that a small group of fishermen move their operations even 10 kilometres or 20 kilometres to a different location.
Vessels are getting larger and that's certainly placing demands on the program in Newfoundland and Labrador for new and enhanced infrastructure, for harbours with deeper bottoms as well. But at the same time, we still have, and need to maintain, our large number of smaller harbours.
One thing that's unique about rural Canada is that MPs certainly have to be closer to their constituents, as the federal level of government touches rural citizens very closely. And I guess we see that with the role small craft harbours play in coastal communities.
We're certainly pleased to be here to have this opportunity to participate in your review.
I'll just ask my colleague Mr. Gervais to make a few remarks.