Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Burnaby—Douglas raises a very good point. Let me provide a little clarification though.
We have core harbours that are usually fishing harbours. They primarily support the commercial fishing industry, although other activities take place there. Recreational boats tie up there from time to time. We then have the non-core harbours and those are usually divested. They might be owned by a non-profit organization, or a community or municipality.
The core harbours are the ones that continue to be owned by the Government of Canada, and in almost every case are managed by a harbour authority. A harbour authority might manage one or more of these small craft harbours. They receive their funding from the small craft harbours program. They generate revenue of their own by rents and other activities in which they are involved.
In most cases those harbour authorities are run by a board. In many cases the harbour authority board then hires a manager. Often an employee manages those. The board members are volunteers, and much of the work in those harbours is done by volunteers. If the volunteers are not there to do it, as they have told us in committee, they are unable to get the job done with the funding available to them.
The member is quite right that volunteers play a very significant role, certainly in the non-core harbours and also in the core harbours that are owned by the Government of Canada and managed by the harbour authorities. We should take every opportunity, and I know I do, to commend them for the good work they do on our behalf.
As we talked to the harbour authorities, the one thing we learned was the good relationship between the harbour authorities and the small craft harbours program. Let there be no misunderstanding, they work together well.
The small craft harbours program is part of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Its officials manage these programs with the harbour authorities, and there is good cooperation. They are committed to training, and a significant amount of money is invested every year in that. Could we do more? I am sure we could. We are listening to them to find out what specific kinds of training would benefit them the most as we move forward. However, we do appreciate the work of these volunteers.