The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Diane Lebouthillier, is not opening the door to paid resources to manage the country’s port authorities which are struggling with succession issues and aging volunteers.
The Gaspé minister was questioned on the subject, considering that the hundred fishing ports in Canada are managed by 5,000 volunteers.
And in Gaspésie, as elsewhere, volunteers are sounding the alarm about the lack of succession, while they manage infrastructures worth several million dollars.
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The president of the Mont-Louis port authority Laurent Normand.
Photo: Radio-Canada
Laurent Normand has been at the head of the Mont-Louis port administration for 35 years. Without hesitation, he believes that the lack of succession threatens the future of fishing ports.
The main challenge remains the renewal of port authority administrators for the entire country
he explains.
The federal Minister of Fisheries says she is well aware of the glaring lack of succession which is hitting port authorities hard.
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The federal Minister of Fisheries, Diane Lebouthillier, says she is aware of the challenges facing port authorities, but is not making any plans for long-term funding.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Martin Toulgoat
Indeed, it is everywhere in Canada, the difficulty of finding replacements and in terms of port infrastructure, we see all the people who gravitate around it, so I think it is important to have people working there.
explains Diane Lebouthillier.
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The coastal quay, in Newport, will be completely redone and moved a few meters with the aim of bringing together all 16 lobster boats there to free up space.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Martin Toulgoat
She adds that discussions are continuing with port authorities to find the best solutions. The minister raises the idea of a regional association which could manage several port authorities.
I dream of an organization at the regional level that could represent the entire territory and that we can establish priorities, so that’s part of the work currently.
says Minister Lebouthillier.
Laurent Normand does not believe that the solution involves grouping together to manage several port authorities, considering the issue linked to the size of the territory in Gaspésie.
Our MRC are already too large, then you need one resource per administration, because if you take a single resource for a large territory, it will never be enough to successfully cover the administrations. You definitely need someone on site to handle emergencies.
believes the administrator.
Concerns about the future of fishing ports
The president of the Mont-Louis port authority is worried about the future of fishing ports if the federal government does not plan to pay for resources. He brings up the idea of hiring students to lend a hand to existing volunteers.
What Fisheries and Oceans Canada should start looking at seriously is how much we are saving the State across the country and then calculating how much we can give to the port authorities and I am not saying to live, but to survive. . If we pay 5 to 6,000 dollars to pay for students, then we would start to be driving. It’s not a lot of money.
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The quay of the village of Saint-Maxime-du-Mont-Louis
Photo: Radio-Canada
Another issue is the significant drop in revenue from wharfing fees linked to the decline of certain resources. Mr. Normand experienced it with the moratorium on groundfish when his wharf was one of the hubs in Gaspésie. A situation also experienced this year in Rivière-au-Renard, hit hard by the crisis in the shrimp industry.
And despite this drop in revenue, stakeholders point out that maintenance costs remain the same, which adds to the challenges faced by port authorities.
