We talk about this, and obviously the focus of our study is small craft harbours, but the harbour is here to support the fishermen.
If you take a look at the mission statement that the small craft harbours program has, the primary goal is to support the commercial fishery. Depending on where you go, there's commercial sport fishing, plus there's recreational use of the various harbours. We've certainly seen indications of that at the three harbours we've seen on Lake Winnipeg. We've seen some interesting arrangements, where there are some private and government wharves or docks in the same facilities.
But when it comes right down to it, it shouldn't be harbour management or the small craft harbours driving fisheries policy; it should be there to support fisheries policy. From a fisheries policy perspective, it would be important to justify increased funding for the small craft harbours.
With the high cost of the dollar right now, I know there is some question as to whether the current marketing system for the freshwater fishery is making all the fisheries viable. The walleye, pickerel, and sauger fisheries are still very viable. But when it comes to things like whitefish or the mullet, we've heard testimony about bushing the fish and so on because it's no longer profitable. When you have more profitable fisheries, it makes it easier for governments to justify spending money on wharves.
Are there any comments you would like to bring forward that would help this committee in its deliberations? Are there any policy changes that need to be made to make it easier to justify increased spending on small craft harbours?
It's an open-ended question, and I'll just leave that out there.