Mr. Speaker, I am a western MP and many people would be surprised to learn that in my prairie riding I have 1,300 commercial fishermen on Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba who are very dependent upon having fully functioning small craft harbours to get their whitefish boats in and out with their daily catch, especially during the season that is upon us. They are out with nets catching whitefish, pickerel, jackfish, saugers and mullets and bringing them back to the fish sheds to get them to market.
There is no doubt that the increase of money that the motion calls for is something that our small craft harbours need. Fishermen have lobbied me on a number of occasions because they felt ignored by the previous government and want to ensure there is more money in the budget to deal with the issue of the small craft harbours.
The member for Malpeque talked about the dredging issue. Dredging is not a new issue. In my riding of Selkirk—Interlake we have had an ongoing problem with consistent dredging since 1993 when the Liberals came to power. The mouth of the Red River has not been dredged since 1999. We cannot get the big fishing boats out of Lake Winnipeg and down to Selkirk with their catch. Everything has to be taken by road. Ships come into Gimli and everything is thrown onto trucks and then shipped to Selkirk to the fish plant. They cannot come down the river any more because it has been ignored for so long.
I just had a meeting this morning with the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to again plead for the resources to be freed up for the dredging that is needed at the mouth of the Red River so the ships can get to the plant to ready their fish for market.
I really am concerned that we are wasting a lot of time talking about this motion. Everyone in the House agrees to the motion. The government should be taking care of business right now rather than spending a lot of time on the motion. We all agree we need to increase the funding to small craft harbours, and not just increase the funding but actually carry through on the commitment and do a pile of repairs to our small craft harbours throughout the country from coast to coast, including our freshwater lakes.
Does the member feel that this is a proper use of time when we should be dealing with orders of the day and trying to get our government business going forward?