My name is Kevin Sigurdson. I'm here on behalf of the chief and council of Kinonjeoshtegon First Nation, representing their business of Goodman's Landing Fisheries Limited.
Some of those pictures that you see are basically just pictures. We don't have any fancy presentation or anything. I just wanted to give you guys an idea of the worst-case scenarios. Of course, the worst-case scenarios are when the water is too high or the water is too low. The biggest thing is that the fishermen do not have protection for their boats.
Just to give a little bit of background, in 2002, the chief and council hired me as a manager to operate their facility at Goodman's Landing. Since that time, we've gone from about $600,000 in revenue to about $1.8 million. It's growing all the time.
Society is changing. The lake stations in the past were all about the fishermen going out to an island, and there would be 40 of them staying there. They built their own docks and went out to this station. Well, society now, today, as we know, is changing, because now the fishermen want to be closer to their families. They want to be home with their children. If it's blowing for a week, they want to be able to go home. So they need road access.
Goodman's Landing provides, on the west side of the lake, road access to the middle of Lake Winnipeg. It's the furthest road access in that area. Of course, in Kinonjeoshtegon First Nation, we have a high rate of unemployment. But we have a very viable fishery. We have fluctuating numbers of between 93 and 108 fishermen. There were 103 T4Fs filed for last year. In 2007 we generated about $1.8 million for about 315,000 kilos of fish.
Since 2002—you'll see one of the pictures, the older pictures with older camps and stuff like that, as they go around—the chief and council of Kinonjeoshtegon First Nation invested over $300,000 in capital to rebuild the camps for the fishermen to live in and to upgrade their ice facilities and stations.
The existing harbour, as you see it, was originally built by the band in 1974 or 1975, I believe--Henry might be able to answer this one--with help from Manitoba Northern Affairs, because they were having trouble getting the boats into the Jackhead River. Since that time, several fish stations have closed down on Lake Winnipeg, because it wasn't viable for them to be hauling fish by boat. So we've been getting an increase in fishermen, and we can only see that the increases are going to be going on a lot longer. I believe we should be getting up to about 500,000 kilos of fish within about three years.
Why are we here today? I'm here today because Goodman's Landing is not part of the small craft harbours plan. We're an individual fish station located on crown lands, six kilometres north of the Kinonjeoshtegon First Nation. Since 2002, we've been after Alan to try to get us some money to build a harbour. The same old thing goes on. We're not a harbour authority, and as you said before, you're not taking on any new harbours.
Everything is changing, so you have to start looking at new ideas for the future. Kinonjeoshtegon is rebuilding the fishery. They want tourism. The north end of Lake Winnipeg is not as developed as the south end. You mentioned before that there is this one 9 miles away and that one 10 miles away. Well, in the north they're 40, 50, and 60 miles away.
Because of the changes and the harbour we have now, we fear for the fishermen's safety and for their equipment. They're using the boats and motors and stuff that are not being protected. You'll see the high waters. There's no breakwater at all, and we've got no boat ramps. We make do. We're not complaining.
You said you had $40,000 to hand out to harbour authorities and stuff like that. Wow, could we use 40,000 bucks! The number the small craft harbours program had come up with was going to be around $600,000 or $700,000.
Another issue that always comes up to the first nations communities is “Sorry, you're a part of Indian and Northern Affairs and we can't help you.” These are all fishermen. It's fishermen, and you've got tourism in the future.
The question was asked before. I believe that if there were some real direction from the small craft harbours program, Indian and Northern Affairs would step up to the table in a joint venture, because without the organization of the small craft harbours program to initiate the harbour authorities for a separate place..... I don't know this for sure, but something could be worked out.
Why is Goodman's Landing a key site? It's a key site because it will allow 75 fishers from about 25 miles north, from McBeth Point, which has a small craft harbour, to come and unload their stuff. They're in a remote station where they've only got access by boat, so they kind of use that as the stopping-over point where they come back for supplies and stuff like that. So there's 75 there.
The Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation has a barge that is running, and if there were a new harbour at Goodman's Landing, that boat could save about eight hours on a round trip to provide them with fresher, faster access--road access. As I said before, it looks as if there's going to be no road to the east side, so we feel we could help the communities with a shorter distance if we had a protected harbour. In the past they have been helpful in our region because they gave us some old docks. Anything we can use we look after as long as we can, and even old docks are better than none.
All—I shouldn't say all; the other fishing communities have safe harbours for their fishermen. All we're asking now is for you to recognize that changes are happening, and the old way of doing things, where all the fishermen were going out to the camps and this and that.... They want to be closer to their families.
I believe Goodman's Landing is the number one site for you to be looking at for a new harbour. I know there's a lot of red tape, because we're not a harbour, but we really feel strongly for that.
In 2005, as you can see by the pictures, we were flooded out. The following year we had too little water. We've got to dredge it. The community spends about $5,000 to $7,500 a year dredging it out. As you know, we're not supposed to be dredging them out, but what do you do if the boats can't come into the harbour? You've got to do what you've got to do in the fishing industry, as everybody knows.
In asking for a new harbour, we don't want to see any facilities decommissioned on the lake. We should keep those other facilities running because we don't know what's going to happen in the future. Keep them running on the lake because we don't know what's going to happen in 20 years. There's very little maintenance to a facility that's not being used every day. So I wouldn't want to see any changes to any existing harbours.
Somebody mentioned a little earlier the idea of “build it and they will come”. The Kinonjeoshtegon First Nation started revitalizing their station, and do you know what? They did come. Now we need your help in ensuring that those people who are coming can have a safe harbour.
Just for your information, because you guys were asking about this before—and this is only my opinion—our family has also been on the lake for a hundred years. We had traders on the boat. I've personally seen a lot of these small craft harbours coming into Warren Landing, rebuilding Black River, rebuilding Catfish Creek and Berens River. We've used those facilities over the years. I grew up with them.
Where was I going with that? I don't know where I was going with that one, but it was a good one.