Fisheries committee  That's a great question. It's a question that is tough to answer. To understand the issue, you have to rewind just a bit. Basically, the harbour authority some time ago was given an ultimatum. The Wedge Point wharf had more commercial value because it's a deeper harbour. They we

Fisheries committee  We're looking at around $80,000. Your typical lobster vessel is putting in about $1,200. The $80,000 goes to funding our manager, our power bill, security, general day-to-day things.

Fisheries committee  If I may ask for clarity, Mr. Arnold, do you mean design of new projects, or what do you mean exactly?

Fisheries committee  I appreciate your touring our area. It means a lot. I believe the small craft harbours has in-house engineers and in some circumstances they may subcontract that work out, but especially with the in-house engineers they come up with a design concept in consultation with the harb

Fisheries committee  Our harbour is much more condensed than Mr. Facey's cluster; it's in one area. We have a proposal submitted to Moncton. As I mentioned, we had submitted this proposal about 20 years ago; however, we had to resubmit lately. Basically, around $6 million would fix our overcapacity

Fisheries committee  Yes, for sure. We've been increasing our fees percentage-wise, basically in the same way the income has been increasing. As the income has been growing, we've been increasing our fees for the past 10 years here. At the end of the day, as Mr. Facey mentioned, it is a public faci

Fisheries committee  Yes. They're likely close to double that amount. I don't have the exact figures, but I know that two years ago they were about double that, and the fishery has only gotten better. We've been on a 10-year increase, basically, since the economic downturn in 2008. The lobster fisher

Fisheries committee  Yes it does, one hundred per cent. As I mentioned, they were trying to save money by dropping their rock wall there. Now we need a $3-million project because they basically shot any chance we had of fixing our capacity issue with the existing structure that we had. We need a new

Fisheries committee  Yes, that's correct. In our area, basically it is up to the harbour authority to decipher what they should charge, but mainly, from what I gather, for most of the wharves in our area—and it's very much the case with our wharf—it's calculated by square footage, so everyone fairl

Fisheries committee  That is a great question. A management agreement.... Could you be more specific?

Fisheries committee  I think it is quite clear, and I think I was asked to touch on this, what small craft harbours dictates and what we dictate as a harbour authority. We have it written somewhere, but I don't have it here in front of me. Basically, we decide the operational day-to-day matters and t

Fisheries committee  I believe that's extremely important. As you mentioned, capacity is a safety issue. For example, last Christmas we had a big storm on Christmas Day. I spent the majority of my Christmas Day at the wharf, because we were fearful for our vessels. Because of overcrowding and overcap

Fisheries committee  I hate being so simple, and I'm sure you guys are probably sick and tired of hearing this, but it's a money issue. There is a disconnect between Public Works—basically the people who dropped those rocks there—and the harbour authority. I believe, though, that this disconnect stem

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. As Mr. Chair mentioned, my name is Lucien LeBlanc. I'm the son of a boat builder. That was a family business in the area. I'm a commercial fisherman and during the off-season of our commercial fishery, I'm a fishing charter captain. I own a tourism busines