Thanks, and I'll share my time with Mr. Morrissey.
I just want to pick up on a point that was raised earlier by Mr. Calkins regarding the capacity issue at our small craft harbours.
I know it depends on what fishery we're talking about as far as what's going on with the consolidation of fleets, or whatever is concerned. There are a number of lobster fishermen in southwestern Nova Scotia, obviously, who want larger boats because they want live wells on their boats in order to have a better quality product when they sell their lobsters. They want to have a safer boat. They want to be able to have a more efficient boat, to be able to put all their lobster traps on in one run, or do a double run in a day.
All of this comes back, though, I think, to the point of the A-base funding, in order to plan long term to deal with some of these capacity issues. I'm glad you raised the issues today with regard to long-term, stable funding in A-base, and the fact that there hasn't been an increase in nine years. I think that's important.
One thing that was raised earlier was with regard to working with the local harbour authority and some of the knowledge on the ground at these wharves in order to make sure that we're not missing an opportunity to have future room for capacity. The issue at the Wedgeport harbour was raised, and the fact that they put a breakwater in a place that didn't allow for floating docks to be put in and have added capacity maybe in the future.
When the final engineering plan is done for work at a small craft harbour, is the harbour authority in on that final engineering plan? Do you think there would be any opportunity to have them actually have a look at it before final approval is given or is that consultation done earlier on, and they don't actually know what's going to happen in the final result?