Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to add my comments to this debate.
My riding is Acadie—Bathurst. As you may know, Chaleur Bay is lined with fishermen's wharves. The entire community from Pointe-Verte to Miscou Island and from my riding to Val-Comeau is a fishing community.
It is unfortunate that it has come to this. The former government deserves no accolades for accumulating surplus after surplus in its budgets. Our wharves are in an incredible state of deterioration.
I remember the big storm in 2000, I think it was, that caused $550,000 in damages to the Petit-Rocher wharf. Waves crested at over 30 feet. The wharf moved about a foot and had to be repaired. The repairs were very expensive. During the election campaign in 2000, the former government played politics with this issue and told the locals that their wharf would not be repaired unless they elected a Liberal government. It is sad to see governments acting this way.
Today, the parliamentary secretary—who I respect—proposes that we take money from one area and invest it somewhere else. It could be taken out of the $10 billion tax break given to corporations with presidents who pay themselves $10 million. Perhaps it would be better to invest this money in the infrastructure of our country. This infrastructure is everywhere—on the Atlantic coast, in Quebec, in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine and in Gaspé, or in our home area.
As I was saying earlier, the Pointe-Verte facilities have needed repairs for several years. In Petit Rocher, it was years before the wharves were repaired. In Grand-Anse, fishermen put out to sea at 5 a.m., return from fishing and anchor in the Baie des Chaleurs. They have to wait for the tide to come in to approach the wharf. This is quite simply unacceptable. Last week, or the week before that, the boat of two fishermen was damaged when they attempted to reach the Grand-Anse wharf. The Miller Brook wharf has also been deteriorating for years, to the point that people should not walk on it. As for the Lamèque wharf, a portion has had to be closed because of its state of disrepair.
That is the situation today. The member from Prince Edward Island stands to say that this government has done nothing. I hope he will do something. To date, we are not very impressed. The budget does not allocate any funds for repairing the wharves. It was the same with the previous government. We are not just concerned about the fishery. The safety of the men and women who go out to sea to fish is also at issue.
Today, for our communities in the Acadian Peninsula, in the area of Petit Rocher and Pointe-Verte, and along the Baie des Chaleurs, the fishery is the main industry. There is also tourism in our area. We must consider tourism and everything required for our wharves.
Hopefully, the government will accept the recommendation made by the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. However, I find the committee's recommendation of $15 million negligible compared to the damage that has been caused across the country. Consider all of the wharves in Gaspé and the Magdalen Islands, on the North Shore and the Acadian peninsula. A fisherman who works on a lobster fishing boat does not want to find himself 60 or 80 km from home. This is nonsense. We need those wharves. They must be repaired.
The previous government dumped this onto the communities, the harbour authorities, telling them to deal with their own problems. As of today, June 5, the government has not yet given the green light to invest in these communities. Everyone is calling the MP to know when the money will be available and, above all, whether the money really will be given to the communities. It is time to distribute the money, and repairing the wharves must be given priority.
Yesterday, for example, the leader of the NDP was in Nova Scotia and met with a fisherman named Sterling Belliveau who has 30 years of experience as a lobster fisherman. These fishermen have been waiting a long time to get their wharf repaired. It is the same thing all over Nova Scotia. It is totally unacceptable that there is no investment in something that our fishermen are waiting for, that they need. We have to look at this in the same way as we look at grain elevators that are needed out west. For the fishery, we need this in the east, we need it in British Columbia and we need it in Vancouver. We need this all across the country where we have fishermen. Just to switch this to the communauté, where we are right now in the fishery, with people in the fishery having a hard time making a living, it is totally unacceptable.
Furthermore, the fishing industry is very difficult these days. Today's lobster fishermen are not rich. As for herring fishermen, who can only fish for four weeks, they are not rich either, due to the price of gas and other associated costs. The last thing they need is to arrive at the wharf and damage their boat because they cannot dock. The dredging that should have taken place was not done. It was all left in a shambles. Everything was neglected. We now find ourselves with whatever is left.
The Bloc Québécois member was right. I agree with his example. It is like a house. If the roof is not repaired, everything will be lost. This is the same for wharves. If they are not repaired when they are damaged, they will be lost.
Here is an example for those who might not be aware. It used to be that communities did not have problems with storms. There are storms now because of climatic changes. I mentioned earlier a storm that broke up the wharf in Petit-Rocher, resulting in expenditures of $550,000. You should see it. Why did that happen? Because there should have been a stone wall out in front of the wharf to protect it.
Every year, we ask the government to invest money to protect our wharves. The government responds that there is no urgency. It waits until the wharf is damaged before fixing it up, because the repairs are then justified. If it took a preventive approach, it would cost a lot less to keep our wharves in good condition. Storms would not break them up. As well, those in poor condition have to be repaired.
People in Miller Brook, Stonehaven, Pointe-Verte, Grande-Anse, Caraquet, l'Anse-Bleue, Lamèque and Shippagan are waiting for the government to come and help them to maintain their infrastructures. This industry is important to the Atlantic region, as well as to the Pacific region. It is all very well for the government to say it is aware, but it has to appear in the budget. In the latest budget, the government allocated no additional amount to resolve the problem of the wharves. It wonders where it will get the money. It already has it. There are billions of dollars in surpluses. It should take this money and spend it where there is a demand and a need.
The fishermen and fishing communities in the regions I named need it just as much as do those in the Gaspé, the North Shore, the Magdalen Islands, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.
The government has a responsibility. I call on it to put the money where it should and to invest in small wharves in order to help our communities and those all across Canada.