In any case, if it has not been done, either Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Parks Canada or even Heritage Canada should initiate a process and get in touch with the provincial governments once the inventory is done and they have decided which installations they want to keep and which ones they want to tear down. I presume that stakeholders will be consulted in some way or other.
As you mentioned, you should perhaps consult the provincial governments, among others, when you decide which lighthouses you want to divest yourselves of. The government may or may not respond, or it may make its choice. It might decide that in some part of the Gaspé Peninsula or of the North Shore, it wants to keep some lighthouses in partnership with a corporation.
Something else is bothering me. A Senate bill is subject to the same rules as a private member's bill. A member can table a bill in the House of Commons, aware of the fact that there will be no problem with the first and second reading. However, when it comes to the third reading, the Speaker may well declare that the bill will not go to third reading because it needs a Royal Recommendation. The same applies to Senate bills, when they involve government expenditures. The Senate cannot table any bill that involves government expenditures that were not provided for in the budget.
Mr. Chairman, you are the sponsor. Will this work be lost because we don't have the money to keep the lighthouses and turn them into historical sites? I presume that fairly soon, as a next step, before going too far with this bill, we should get the Speaker of the House to explain this matter to us. If we almost reach the report stage and the third reading is not allowed because the bill indirectly involves government expenditure, the Speaker will not grant Royal Recommendation.
The Speaker will have to advise us regarding this bill and tell us whether or not it requires a Royal Recommendation. Otherwise, we may end up working on it, hearing witnesses or even travelling, which might create expectations because the people in our respective ridings will think that it is good to see the government taking an interest in lighthouses. They have been abandoned for nearly 20 years, and now there is a glimmer of hope, because a committee is studying the issue. Nevertheless, there is many a slip between the cup and the lip, and the ribbon-cutting ceremony is still far away.