Good day. I'm Warren Parsons, chairman of the Harbour Authority of Harbour Grace.
I wasn't quite prepared for this, because I was gone out of the province for a few days with some personal matters. I got back on Friday and I got a fast call to attend this. I appreciate that, and thank you very much.
Harbour Grace has a long-standing history in the fishery. We at one time had a fish plant there. It was built back in the war years, back in the 1940s. It stood there and employed an awful lot of people, in fact 600 or 700 people, and probably more at times, right up until 1992, with the collapse of the cod fishery. At that time that just fell by the wayside and was torn down. Since then there has been a shrimp plant built there for off-loading vessels. Last year, for that shrimp plant, there was in excess of 100 million pounds of shrimp landed at that facility.
In those times we had all these small communities. I come from a small community. I don't belong right to Harbour Grace; I belong to Bryants Cove, 350 people. We had our own wharf. I am a fisherman myself. But due to storm damage back in the 1980s the wharf started to deteriorate, and finally in the late 1980s it was gone. We tried to seek funding, but we were unsuccessful. We were told by small craft harbours directorate that it would all be consolidated into a larger port and we would have better facilities than what we had at home.
In that case, the people of the day started....There was a spot on the south side of Harbour Grace, which was really a pond. That's all it was. People used to run their fishing boats in there years ago to get away from storms. What they called fishing boats then was a trap skiff. At that time we started to get money from ACOA, and small craft harbours directorate gave us some money. We finally developed it into what is called Admiral's Marina now. At that time, when it started to get going well, we had 33 fishing boats at that place. We had zero pleasure craft and ten transient vessels that used to travel to Harbour Grace. Right now, in 2008, we have 50 fishing vessels, 45 pleasure craft, and there are at least 50 transient vessels that will travel through, off-loading their product and seeking safe shelter in our harbour.
When they started the crab fishery back in 1988 and all these small boats of years ago of 20 feet or 22 feet started to get into crab in 1996, they went up to 38 feet or 40 feet. Since that the government has changed some rules.
Right now, the smaller vessels on the inner bays are allowed to go to 40 feet. The vessels offshore and outside are allowed to go 90 feet, which puts an awful strain on us fellows, as chairmen of harbour authorities, to try to keep up with accommodating those vessels. The sizes have not just doubled; in some cases the size is ten times what it was. A few years ago, or even back last year, you could take a 22-foot vessel and tie it to a floating dock, but those people now are moving into vessels up to 40 feet, and floating docks do not accommodate those vessels anymore. So right now we're caught on a limb trying to get wharf space. You need wharf space for those vessels.
Right now in Harbour Grace we have seven companies that buy fish over the wharf, and they employ approximately six or seven people each during the summer months, plus graders and monitors. Our landings at our fishing facility last year totalled approximately eight million pounds of product. We accommodate right now at our facility in Harbour Grace vessels right from Spaniard's Bay through to Lower Island Cove.
When I took over this harbour authority--I became chairman here four years ago--we saw the need for more wharf space. Everything was maxed out. We were starting to get maxed out with what we had. It was getting filled up. I met with the former minister in the other administration, Mr. John Efford, and he agreed with us, that we definitely needed something. So we sat down with him and we said we needed to build another boat basin to accommodate the larger vessels west of the Admiral's Marina. Mr. Efford gave his commitment for funding, so we started off and we got the first phase done, but there's still an awful lot of work that needs to be done with that facility.
I understand it's not all going to be done in one year, but we certainly need four or five years to get it done. We certainly need someone from the government and someone from small craft harbours directorate to sit down and say, “This is our plan right here”, and we certainly need someone to say, “You will get funding for that plan, so much a year”. We know every year that we're going to be building and increasing our wharf space and accommodation for our vessels.
Right now we've got one part of that wharf in. We've got 140 feet, I think, plus 60 feet American. Really, when you look at 140 feet, well, you can get two boats abreast. You've got approximately enough room, if the vessels are not 90 feet, to get eight vessels at the wharf. But if they start coming in with 90-foot vessels things are going to change an awful lot in this fishery. There will be people with those vessels, and we definitely need more money to do this with.
That is my biggest concern right now. Small craft harbours directorate seem to be giving us a little bit here and a little bit there, something to try to keep us happy. But I think if you take a project on, you should turn around and make a commitment to that harbour authority: we will take this on and finish it with a plan. No one is asking for one year upfront, all the money, but certainly there is a need to sit down and say, “You will get what you want if it's approved”, and do it in four or five years, and you'd have a guarantee that there would be so much work done every year. At least you'd know what you're going to do in the year coming.
Thank you.