Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses.
I want to zero in on the small craft harbours program. This committee just produced a report to the House. One of the principal recommendations, a very serious recommendation we offered to the government, was to get the small craft harbours budget out quickly so that we would actually have time to do the contracts in the period for which the money was originally intended.
There was an announcement. I'll use the specific example of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Province of Newfoundland and Labrador had $20.3 million--not $20.4 million, not $20.2 million, but $20.3 million--allocated to it. I believe Senator Fabian Manning made the announcement. That's a pretty exact number. It implies that there was a specific set of projects that were tied to that number; otherwise, it would be sort of arbitrary to say $20.3 million.
What we found was that the government's spokesperson for the announcement said that no list of projects has actually been approved: “I'm just here making this global announcement and, by the way, I'd really like to see Arnold's Cove and Flatrock done”. That was the government's spokesperson, Senator Fabian Manning, who made that recommendation.
Mr. Bevan, or any witness here, we'd like to know if a list actually got sent up from the Newfoundland region of small craft harbours to Ottawa as part of that budgetary envelope, or was it just a number that was floated out there, as if it was, “We really don't know where we're going to spend this, we haven't made any decisions”, and maybe maybe Flatrock and Arnold's Cove might get done after all, even if they weren't on the list.
Because you know what? All of us on this committee, being rather experienced at this process, know that when small craft harbours officials go out and meet with people, we kind of get an idea of where the small craft harbours program is going with where they're going to spend their money, or at least where they're going to recommend it be spent. It seems that in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador that really doesn't matter, and that the people on the ground working for small craft harbours in DFO really don't have much to say in this process.
Is there a list that went up from Newfoundland and Labrador and the other provinces to Ottawa or is it all just a political process once we get up here?