Fishermen welcome federal investment into P.E.I. small craft harbours

New federal investment into small craft harbours in P.E.I. will go a long way to improve conditions for fishermen in the region, people working in the sector said.

Malpeque MP Wayne Easter announced Friday on behalf of Fisheries and Oceans Canada that Ottawa will be investing $4.8 million to renew harbours located in Prince and Queens counties.

The department has so far identified the harbours at Covehead, Malpeque and North Rustico as requiring improvements. Funding at Covehead will go toward an annual dredging, the cleaning out of sediment and debris from the harbour bed.

Allan Coady, a representative for the fishermen at Covehead, said the investment has been a long time coming. 

"Anything will be a help," he said. "It's not safe going in and out of there even now; boats are dragging at low tide and when the big moons are on, it's very dangerous going in and out.

"We did manage to get through the spring with no real bad damage, but some boats had to be lifted out and patched out a little bit."

'Like going into a ditch"

Coady said it's been years since dredging has been done and that exiting the harbour could be as dangerous as "driving down the road and going into a ditch."

Joey Gauthier, who runs a deep sea fishing tour, said there will still be a lot of work that will need to be done to improve the harbour.

"$5 million is a lot of money, but it's a lot of work," he said. "We'll see how far that goes."

Gauthier said the improvements, which are expected to be done by next spring, will serve fishermen at Covehead for years to come.

"The next generation of fishermen are coming and hopefully we can leave the harbour in good shape for these guys," he said.

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