Transport Committee on Oct. 31st, 2024

[Laurence Renaud-Langevin]

At 3 metres of depth, regardless of the type of vessel, you should not be within 100 metres of shore or travel at a speed above 10 kilometres an hour.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Philip Lawrence]

Thank you so much.

We're moving on to the New Democratic Party and Ms. Dance, who I must say is a marked improvement over the usual NDP representative.

I'm just teasing.

[Leila Dance, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Thank you to both witnesses for coming out. I really appreciate it.

Mayor Storey, Mr. Bachrach couldn't be here. Hopefully I can do him justice. We appreciate your being here.

I want to go back a bit and talk about some of the difficulties you were having with Transport Canada when you were talking about the buoys. You talked a bit about the Village of Fraser Lake passing a resolution.

I'd like you to talk about the process, whether you got the buoys installed, whereabouts you are in that and what it looked like throughout that process.

[Sarrah Storey]

The FCM takes only one resolution forward in Canada a year. I got a call when Garth Frizzell was the president, and they said, “Yeah, that one isn't going to make it. It was close.” Then there was nothing. I've heard nothing since.

I just came down to Ottawa for a conference. I came and visited Taylor. MP Bachrach is my MP, so that was easy. He took me around and I met a few people and had conversations about this resolution we built in 2018.

It's been quite a long time since we built this resolution, and there's been no growth. Nothing has happened with it. Something needs to happen because, again, the water levels are going down and it's just been getting worse from 2018 to now. You can stand on these reefs. Nothing has happened.

[Leila Dance, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Did you have any contact with Transport Canada, or because it only takes so many a year...?

[Sarrah Storey]

No. Nothing has happened. I don't know why or how that works, but that's just how it's been.

Again, I don't know how the process works with those resolutions once they go forward. I'll continue to work on that now I'm the third vice-president of the UBCM, which is helpful, because I can push resolutions from the federal side as much as from the provincial side, which is something we haven't really done as much.

[Leila Dance, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

That's perfect.

The other witness talked about funding. Did you know about any of that funding? Is that something you would be interested in accessing, especially since you'd be looking for more buoys?

[Sarrah Storey]

Yes. There are a couple of parts here that I'd like to touch on.

It's one thing for us, as a small municipality, when we have limited staff. One of our staff members is the new economic development officer. He worked for the federal government and the provincial government. We have only two real staff members who do a lot of the grant applications. It is time-consuming.

Capacity is a huge thing, especially when you have a $1.675-million deficit coming with the loss of industry. All of a sudden, we have less capacity. Looking at the funding, maintenance and then removal, maybe in the winter, of those buoys, there are certain things that go along with that.

Our municipality doesn't own a boat, and the RCMP.... I heard something a little while ago about how the local police should be monitoring speeds. The RCMP does not do that in Fraser Lake. It doesn't have a boat either. Unless there's an emergency, we have to call the search and rescue team in. There are no boats monitoring the lake unless there's a major complaint with a child in the water whom a boat almost hit, and then they'll go and do an investigation. The RCMP doesn't have the capacity to monitor some of this either, so that would mean more work.

[Leila Dance, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

One of the questions I asked the last few witnesses was about licensing. We've talked a bit about that. Do you think some of that would help? What expanded programs do you think...?

I'm sorry. This might be more for Ms. Renaud-Langevin. Do you think any of that licensing or those changes...? Do we know about any other jurisdictions that have a more detailed process that might be able to work here in Canada?

[Sarrah Storey]

If we're not refreshing ourselves, we forget things. It's the same with a driver's licence. I think it might actually help, even if you have to do a 20-minute refresher when you get your boating licence, because you do forget things.

She is correct in that if you're not going out every day and you're not on the waterways every day, you might not even know what those buoys stand for. You have to figure it out. I've heard of people losing their entire propeller because they didn't understand the navigational buoys, so they need refreshers. People need to remember that they're not going to remember it.

There could be work done on that. It is people's responsibility, however, to do that work before they get in a boat. It is based around education. You have to remind people, “This is your responsibility. Go and learn.” I'm noticing that with everything, so it's not just one thing.

[Leila Dance, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Ms. Renaud-Langevin, do you want to add anything about that?

[Laurence Renaud-Langevin]

I feel the same as Ms. Storey said.

The measures in place for obtaining a pleasure craft licence really need to be changed, or they need to be strengthened.

People who don't work in navigation won't know where the new buoys are, which tend to appear overnight. There needs to be a lot of awareness raising.

In my experience, if we don't establish from the outset that the rules are necessary and that they must be complied with, people will simply take the easiest and fastest route. They're going to be dismissive of the measures that are in place.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Philip Lawrence]

There are only 10 seconds left, Ms. Dance.

[Leila Dance, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

That's it. Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Philip Lawrence]

Thank you very much.

We've completed a successful first round of questioning. We're on to the second round.

We will begin with the Conservative Party and Mr. Muys.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses on this second panel.

Let me start with Massawippi Blue.

I've been to the lake, but not on a boat, I would point out. It's a beautiful corner of Quebec. You're not too far from the Vermont and New Hampshire border.

You cited in your testimony some of the scientific research and projects that you've done. I'm wondering if your organization has had any interaction with similar organizations over the border. The watershed would, I think, include areas of those particular states.

[Laurence Renaud-Langevin]

I have not directly had encounters with organizations in Vermont, New York or Maine.

One of my friends was here on Tuesday, Ariane Orjikh from the MCI Memphrémagog. We work closely because we're 15 minutes apart from each other's lake. She works closely with Vermont and whenever she gets information, she gives it to us.

To my knowledge and to answer a question that was asked on Tuesday, Vermont has a new policy. Maine also has a new policy with 300 feet and 10 kilometres. New York is looking into it as well.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

We've asked this of other witnesses. What, in your view, would be the right balance between recreational boating and the health of the lake? Where does that balance lie?

[Laurence Renaud-Langevin]

I really think that water is for everybody to access. It belongs to everyone. I think that if we use the lake carefully, responsibly and safely, which includes how many boats get on the lake, you get the environment and safety that everybody is looking for.

Earlier, there was someone talking about the capacity of the lake. By introducing that with technology already in use on how many boats are in the lake, you can cross-reference and have your capacity right there in your hand through technology.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Mayor Storey, I want to follow up on previous questions.

You talked about the very urgent need to transition the local economy from forestry and mining to tourism. Having lived and worked in Alberta and travelled a lot in B.C. and the Okanagan, and all the boating that happens there, I've seen that. I haven't been to your part of the world, but I'm sure it's beautiful.

What percentage of the current economy in your region is tourism? Where would you hope that to be?

[Sarrah Storey]

Northern B.C. isn't known for being the biggest tourism spot, so I don't have those numbers off the top of my head.

You're welcome to come to visit.

We are working on northern B.C. tourism more and more. There's the port of Prince Rupert, and we're trying to get cruise ships to come through the north a bit more. There are a lot of people who drive through here on their way to Alaska. We want to get them to stop or even go for staycations from Prince George. A lot of people stay at the Pomeroy in Prince George. We have no idea why. There are two water slides there. They will literally leave their house and go and do that.

That's happening. People are looking for places to go where they don't have to travel as far. When we talk about emissions, maybe that's a great thing. They're staying within their region, and they're not flying to Hawaii. We want to keep them within the north or within our province, so that might be a good thing.

I'm sorry that I don't have those numbers, but there's a lot of traffic going through our communities because of the growth.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Right, the Yellowhead Highway is right there.

What is the time horizon for the building of the hotels and the restaurants, etc.?

[Sarrah Storey]

We were hoping to be ahead of the game before the sawmill closed, if it ever did. Unfortunately, it closed in May. Then Canfor closed at the end of the year in December, which was about 50 other high-paying jobs in our region.

We lost 300 with the mine, another couple of hundred—I would say it was probably 300—with the sawmill over the last couple of years and then another 50. That's 650 high-paying jobs that have gone, so we need this as soon as possible. We need to move on things.

Again, we're grant dependent. We have only 1,000 people who live in the community, and we can't tax them.... We have a $100-million infrastructure deficit. We can't tax them to death. Unfortunately, there's just not enough funding.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Philip Lawrence]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Lauzon, you're up for five minutes.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Storey, you spoke a number of times about the importance of making people aware of buoy regulations.

Is the Village of Fraser Lake supported by an organization in terms of awareness campaigns or studies?