I'm Stacy Linington, from Canyon Creek, Alberta, representing the north, central, and Arctic region.
Our existing facilities face the same operational issues as those of the other regions. Where we differ most is in the number of fishers who don't have access to any facilities at all.
In much of our area we have no DFO presence. There is no search and rescue or any other DFO presence, other than that represented by small craft harbours. These small craft harbours are operated and maintained by volunteers, and they serve only about 40% of the fishers in the central and Arctic region.
There are many other areas where the opportunity to develop sustainable commercial fisheries exists. Many of these are remote northern areas with indigenous people. We need the economic opportunities that a commercial fishery could offer.
The Pangnirtung project is a great start. However, we have many other opportunities to develop viable and sustainable commercial fisheries in our area. These opportunities exist in northern communities in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the territories. When we consider the lack of facilities in our remote indigenous communities, it is indeed a very low percentage of the potential fishers in the central and Arctic region who have access to government-funded facilities. All these fishers deserve to have a safe harbour.
When I volunteered to participate as a member of this harbour authority I felt it was my responsibility to work with the government and work toward safe harbours for all of our fishers. It is to this end that I would respectfully ask that this group consider additional funding to aid in the economic development of viable and sustainable commercial fisheries in our northern communities.
For approximately $5 million the central and Arctic region could provide an additional 15 harbours to accommodate 400 to 500 fishers on the lakes in Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, Chip Lake in Northern Alberta, Baker Lake in Nunavut, Deschambault Lake in Saskatchewan, or the northern regions of Lake Winnipeg. As an example, Goodman's Landing has no facility there now, and there are 60 to 80 vessels that go there and 500,000 pounds of product are landed there now. There is no dock. At present they are beaching their vessels there at the landing and they offload from the beach. Whenever there is a storm that comes up it becomes impossible for them. They are losing product right now because of the lack of facilities to offload.
I can't stress enough the need for safe harbours in our region for commercial fishers of our area. We have all known fishers who died on a lake in the past few years. We feel that we deserve to have safe harbours, and we would like for our families to feel that we are safe while we are on the waters, especially when we are coming in to unload our catch.
Thank you.