Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. I will go into more detail.
Wharves can represent an intermediate point between two destinations. It is true that they do not spring up by magic; they are not mushrooms. At some point, communities needed them. Some needs may have been much greater than they are today because of a type of fishery that was popular. At the same time, these wharves could be used to revitalize a transportation network consisting of fishing boats, commercial vessels, transport vessels, pleasure craft and other types of vessels. It would be a transportation network.
I would like to go into more detail about another aspect, and that is security. Infrastructure in certain locations—as I said earlier, they do not spring up by magic—could be used for protection during storms, which can arise unexpectedly. Given the ongoing climate changes, not only would a wharf located in a certain location be used for transportation, it would also serve in dealing with a situation where safety was at issue, perhaps a life or death situation.
Let us imagine that someone in a boat was faced with some kind of emergency situation—maybe something was wrong with the boat, there was trouble at sea, it was taking on water or any such thing—and the wharves had disappeared over time because they had not been maintained. If we and our successors are not responsible managers—for our predecessors were not—we will be responsible for these deaths. I do not wish to be dramatic, but that is the point we are at.
I am thinking of the wharf at Pointe-aux-Loups, in the Magdalen Islands. It is used possibly by only a few fishermen; however, it has a strategic geographical location. That is why a wharf can actually be much more than just part of a transportation network. I acknowledge, based on what my colleague just mentioned, that that would definitely allow us to have transshipment infrastructure, but it is also a good thing in terms of security.