Fisheries Committee on Oct. 29th, 2009

[Raynald Blais, Bloc, Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC]

Thank you.

Mrs. Huard, the Gaspé region and the Magdalen Islands are lovely locations for visiting wharves. I'd like to formally invite you to visit my region of the country. You will see some cases of divestment, some fences that have been erected and some facilities that are in need of major repairs, but you will also see some success stories.

Sometime in the next few days, could you tell us how you go about identifying priority cases and how you act on these priorities? What are the different stages of the analysis process? For example, you receive requests concerning ports at different locations across Canada. Do you proceed on a regional basis? Do you encounter competition? You have never provided us with this type of information in the past, but it would be important for us to have it for the purposes of our final report.

[Michaela Huard]

It will only take us a few minutes to explain things to you. Each region has its own priorities.

Each of the regions prioritize their projects based on need and based on safety. Safety is actually the first one.

With respect to need, we look at the number of fishers that use the particular port. There are a number of criteria that the regions use in coming up with their list of priorities. It's something they're quite used to. Then there are meetings to look at the sum of the projects for the country.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Mr. Stoffer.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Ladies, thank you very much for coming again.

If possible, could you send this committee the seven harbours that were slated for Nunavut, and how much money has been spent of the $46 million to date? When can we anticipate completion of the other six in that regard, if that's at all possible?

The other one, of course, is the dredging. Does dredging fall under your bailiwick as well?

[Michaela Huard]

Do you mean dredging with respect to operations within a harbour? Yes, it does.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Okay.

I have one question regarding P.E.I. I thought I'd ask it because Lawrence didn't ask, and he'd kick himself for not doing it. Again I thank François for this.

What's the current situation with respect to dredging Naufrage Harbour in P.E.I.? That's the specific harbour. If you don't have the answer, you can send it to us later; that would be great.

Once again, thank you for coming.

[Michaela Huard]

I believe Naufrage in P.E.I. is dredged on an annual basis. There may have been some done recently because of the tuna fishery. I would have to check specifically. I believe it's normally done in the spring as well.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Okay. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you, Mr. Stoffer.

Mr. Kamp.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for coming. You obviously have a challenging job, with a lot of assets that need to be maintained. We in this committee are well aware of the deficit you're faced with. I'm assuming, though, that you were pleased with the additional $200 million over two years to try to at least make a dent in it. Am I right in that?

[Michaela Huard]

Very much so; it's nice to be able to move the projects forward.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

There's obviously more to be done.

Here is a question I would ask across the country. I think some of our witnesses in various places have found me a little annoying for asking this, but it seemed to me that I saw a wide variety of abilities of harbour authorities to generate income from additional things. I have to say that in British Columbia, many harbours I visited were quite good at it, but I didn't see that same level across the country.

Is the program actively involved in helping those who actually manage the harbours figure out how to charge the right rates and run other revenue-generating activities?

[Michaela Huard]

I'm sure Micheline will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe I mentioned earlier that if I were to think of the top three areas harbour authorities have asked us to help with, one is how to collect revenues and how to ensure that they're able to raise the funds they need. That is an area, one of the three, that we are working with them on.

I haven't had the opportunity yet to see the B.C. examples, but I am aware that they probably have investigated things that could be of use to others as well.

[Micheline Leduc]

The harbour authorities are actually generating $24 million per year in revenue. You're quite right; it's an uneven distribution. It seems to be easier for the harbour authorities out west to increase their revenue bases. This is indeed one of the initiatives we're working on.

Harbour authorities are sometimes running into issues with fee collection. There are delinquent users out there. It doesn't help the cause of the harbour authorities when users are not receptive or not willing to pay their due. Again we're helping the harbour authorities address that problem.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Good. Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you.

On behalf of the committee, I'd like to say thank you once again for taking the time to appear before the committee this afternoon. We appreciate your time and efforts.

We will take a short recess before we move to other business. Thank you.

[Proceedings continue in camera]

[Public proceedings resume]

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

I'll call the meeting back to order. We are now meeting in public.

I'll ask the clerk to distribute the subcommittee report, which you have and to which there is one addition. The change would be, subject to the availability of Mr. Hearn, that on November 16 we would meet from 11 until 1.

I would ask for any discussion on the subcommittee report.

Mr. Kamp.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Just for clarification, does it mean there's no meeting on November 19, if we're having meetings on November 16 and 17, or are we having three that week? If we have disposed of the report on November 17....

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Is what you're suggesting that we might do it on Tuesday, November 17, and dispose of the November 19 meeting?

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

I'm easy on that; I'm just asking.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Mr. Byrne.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

My preference would be to keep November 19 available. I hope we don't have to use Thursday, November 19. I more or less tried this before, and I don't want to rub salt, but maybe what we could do is pass a motion to say that by 4:30 on November 17 the question has to be put.

[An hon. member]

Yes, that's fine.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

We're not going to filibuster, I don't think.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Mr. Stoffer, did you want to speak?