Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the bill that aims to protect our heritage lighthouses. I also want to acknowledge the work of my colleagues, the member for Sackville—Eastern Shore who has spoken on this issue and is in support of it, and the member for Halifax who understands the value of maintaining our heritage.
I listened to the previous member speak and although he is from the east coast and talked about the beautiful scenery and the crashing waves on the coast of the Atlantic provinces, I want to talk about where I come from on the west coast of British Columbia where we also have some lighthouses that are no longer in use because of advancing technology and other ways of protecting and monitoring our coastlines. It is also with some pride that I talk about the beauty of my area and the crashing waves on the west coast.
When I look at the “whereases” in this bill, the first whereas says:
WHEREAS lighthouses have long graced Canada’s rugged coastlines and majestic shores, providing and symbolizing direction, hope and safe harbour to generations of mariners;
To me that conjures up so many images of seafarers of long ago and currently who ply our coasts in trade and just thinking of how the lighthouses were a beacon of hope in a dark and stormy night or when they see land and knew where they were. So our lighthouses have long been part of our coastal history.
In protecting these monuments to our past, by designating them a heritage site and protecting, maintaining and ensuring they are there for future generations, we can continue to have these images in our mind and remember and reflect on what it was like in days gone by when we relied on lighthouses to keep us safe and to get our bearings.
The bill explains in great detail how a lighthouse would be designated and what would happen with it. It also sets out some parameters under which it should be restored. It is important to protect the lighthouses that we deem to be heritage property but we also need to ensure they have adequate funding. For many of our heritage buildings and heritage properties, we see volunteer groups working very hard and raising funds to keep these projects going to ensure they are there for tourism and economic diversity in our small communities but we do not see a lot of funding from the government.
If the bill were to pass, I would certainly hope that the government would see fit to ensure there is adequate funding because these lighthouses, in many cases, are in very remote areas, especially the ones in my riding of Vancouver Island North. We have the Nootka light, the Cape Scott and the Cape Mudge which are located in places that are only accessible by boat. If they were deemed heritage sites, considerable funding would be necessary to maintain and keep them in a safe operating condition for tourists and other economic generation.
I want to talk briefly about the west coast where my parents lived for quite a number of years. In the winter they were the caretakers of a fish camp out on Nootka Island, which was basically the point of contact for Europeans when they came to Canada because it has a lighthouse that is located at the remote end of Nootka Island. When one looks out across the ocean and thinks of the vastness of it, one knows that the next stop across that ocean is Japan. The lighthouse is on the very edge of the Pacific.
My parents lived there for a number of years during the winter months and got to know the lighthouse keepers at Nootka light. Those people were always on call. They were always there for mariners, sailors, ordinary fishermen, commercial fishermen and anybody who happened to be out on the waters on the west coast, making their living or enjoying their lives. That lighthouse has changed hands. There are other people there now.
The people who were there at that time spoke so often of the need to have staffed lighthouses on our coast, because sometimes the technology just does not work, especially in that remote a location. Satellites may work, but quite often cellphones do not work in those areas. Satellites phones do not always work. There is a need to make sure there is safety on our coast and that some of these lighthouses remain staffed and are there for protection. If it takes a few hours to get from point A to point B by boat and people are in a crisis out on the wild Pacific Ocean, they would not have to wonder if help is going to arrive in six hours or in two hours. I think it is important to make sure we keep some of our lighthouses staffed.
I also want to touch on something that my colleagues from Nanaimo—Cowichan and Victoria have talked to me about. They also have lighthouses in their ridings. There are many volunteer groups and a huge broad base of support for heritage lighthouses. These people have watched the bill through all its manifestations over the years. It has been introduced five or six times in the House and has been spoken about, but it never goes anywhere.
We know that there are many people in our communities who would be ready to start working on the preservation of heritage lighthouses if this bill were to pass. I want to let everyone know that there is broad community support for the bill. I hope we can actually get something done with it this time, as the member opposite said in his remarks.
I agree that preservation of heritage lighthouses on our east and west coasts can be an economic draw for some of our smaller communities such as Port Hardy. We have Cape Scott, which is the beginning of the north coast trail that is being built, and we are seeking more funding for that trail. As I said when I spoke in the House last week, the trail draws thousands of people a year. We know about the west coast trail and how popular it is with wilderness hikers from around the world. The trail I am speaking of would not be connected to that west coast trail, but it would be an extension. With a heritage lighthouse on it, at some point it may draw even more people.
These are things that we can do in Canada to preserve our heritage. We can showcase ourselves in a way that no other country can. We can make sure that we diversify our economies by increasing our tourism base in hiking trails and walking trails and by exploration in areas that we may not have thought of as popular tourist destinations in the past.
Again I want to thank the member who introduced the motion, and I also thank Senator Pat Carney, who did so much work on the bill in the Senate. I thank her for her work in pushing it forward and making sure that it got to the House. I support this bill.