Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister and gentlemen, back in December the committee produced an interim report to the House regarding the small craft harbours program. It was intended to provide evidence of the need for over $1 billion, potentially, in additional support for the small craft harbours program. We didn't get it. Instead of the $1 billion, we got $10 million, which is going to be directed at tearing down certain harbours.
You still have certain amounts of money. There was a project that was listed on the Government of Canada website on December 2, 2007, pertaining to Nipper's Harbour on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. The Government of Canada website said that the project is scheduled to be carried out during the spring and summer of 2008. That's information directly from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, posted on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency website.
We haven't received any announcement on that as yet. You wrote to the harbour authority last year, Minister, saying that you would be prioritizing it and that the project would occur when funds became available. We've heard direct testimony from your assistant deputy minister and deputy minister that the projects for small craft harbours for this year are basically approved. The entire allotment has gone to your desk and it's waiting for announcement.
We need to get this project, and several others like it, out the door so that we don't miss the construction season, which has a narrow window in Newfoundland and Labrador. We need to get the public tenders completed and equipment mobilized. If you don't announce the project and others like it, it probably will not occur.
Can you tell this committee, the people at Nipper's Harbour, and citizens in communities throughout Atlantic Canada, Quebec, and other areas that depend on small craft harbours when you are going to be completing the round of small craft harbours announcements for this year?