As I stated previously, Sydney Harbour is a public port. The federal government maintains ownership of the submerged lands, but over many years the federal assets landside have been either sold or divested.
We are under the management of the Transport Canada ports group, but we have a limited local presence of Transport Canada. The port corporation I work for is a not-for-profit, and we are the deferred to or assumed port authority for Sydney Harbour in the absence of another presence in the harbour. We see opportunities and see stakeholders wanting to advance projects, but there is a lack of a unifying group, or what I'd like to say is the catalyst to really unify, promote and advocate on behalf of these individual stakeholders.
We're looking to establish the local harbour authority and be resourced by the revenue generated through port activity that is currently remitted to Transport Canada general revenues. There's a gap that needs to be filled.
We submitted a proposal in 2024 with respect to divestiture and the thought that we could possibly fit under the ports asset transfer program, but we are not eligible to be in that program because there are no federal assets, with the exception of the submerged lands, that enable us to fit in that criteria.
We are not a Canada port authority, nor are we currently checking the boxes to be a Canada port authority. We are proposing this path forward as a potential opportunity to establish governance that gives local control through a management agreement with Transport Canada that will essentially be in accordance with the Canada Marine Act, but will really fulfill the objectives of the national marine policy.