Fisheries committee  You're asking the wrong people here. That's one that could have been directed to Mr. Hegge last week. The deputy will be here next week, so I'd rather you direct those questions to her.

Fisheries committee  Right now it's in the department.

Fisheries committee  Personally, I haven't experienced that yet.

Fisheries committee  As I alluded to in my opening remarks, we're in the process of developing a strategic plan. The program is 20 years old, or will be in 2008, so in our minds it has evolved over the 20 years. We want to take a look at the best practices that have been determined over the past 20 years and develop a framework and a new vision, possibly, to take us into the next 20 years.

Fisheries committee  There is a small craft harbours management committee.

Fisheries committee  I couldn't give you the specifics. At this point in time we're just talking among ourselves about what we could do. I would imagine, and you can't hold me to this, that the minister would be involved in verifying that kind of change, if it is a change. We'd certainly talk to our advisory processes about the changes as well.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  It was that $50 is generated within the economic base of the community.

Fisheries committee  We've provided to the clerk seven studies that you folks have asked for, economic generation studies that we've done in British Columbia. The most impressive one that I have seen suggests that for every dollar the crown invests in a harbour, there's $50 in spinoff benefits throughout the local community.

Fisheries committee  Yes, they have, and they have access to provincial funds. Most recently there's been a $50 million fund that the province has developed or is marketing to generate economic development on the coast, and some harbour authorities have applied for that kind of funding. It's principally for waterfront development, so it's not simply for the harbours, but fortunately those harbours are the central point for that harbour development.

Fisheries committee  From British Columbia, I'm pleased to say that all our ports are either in fair or good condition. So we don't have any that are barricaded. We don't have any that are not being utilized.

Fisheries committee  Divestiture, to me, means that if it's principally a recreational harbour, the mandate is to look after the commercial fishing industry, so we will divest. That's what's been happening in Ontario. The majority of those harbours have been recreational harbours. The second step is that we seek interests in the community, if someone wants to take it over as part of a harbour authority process.

Fisheries committee  It's always been a challenge to have a legitimate window to do the work, so planning is the key. We'd like better, more relaxed regulations within our own department to assist us in that regard. But we're stuck with the regulatory requirements from Treasury Board, so that's a little bit of inflexibility for us.

Fisheries committee  I'll mention two things. The numbers reflected a point in time and they're evolutionary. No one expected we were going to have a better rate on the U.S. dollar when those numbers were being done two or three years ago. So things change economically. To me, it's like a number up in the air; it's an aspiration.

Fisheries committee  I can't tell you specifically what other regions do, but I know from a study we've just done on our own that they've raised close to $9.2 million. I think that's very significant. I don't know if it's 80%, but it might be in the neighbourhood of 50% or 55% of the national total.