by Lisa Stewart
The Westerly News
July 19, 2006
Waiting on Fisheries and Oceans' Small Craft Harbours division to see
if there would be funding available to help with improvements at Ucluelet's
Boat Basin is a gamble that doesn't seem to have paid off.
Ucluelet council, as the Harbour Authority, was hopeful Small Craft Harbours (SCH) would help pay for an additional fish cleaning station and improvements at the Boat Basin parking lot, but SCH's Levi Timmermans attended a recent Harbour Authority meeting and threw water on some of these hopes.
"We're actually quite happy with the parking lot. Most harbours don't have a parking lot, let alone a paved one," Timmermans told the authority and members of the Harbour Advisory Commission (HAC) June 20. "You are fortunate to have a large parking facility [even though] you may not think it is enough."
"We don't have any major planned improvements to the parking lot."
The authority and the HAC have been brainstorming ways to expand the capacity of the Boat Basin lot. One suggestion for managing use of the lot is to go to pay parking which Timmermans said is typical at many Small Craft Harbour sites, but he said that idea also comes with operational considerations around amounts to charge and what system to use. "I can put you in touch with other pay parking Small Craft Harbours," said Timmermans, but said it is an operational decision and SCH wouldn't get involved with implementation.
On the fish cleaning station, which is in the harbour budget for 2006 at a cost of approximately $40,000, Timmermans said there wouldn't be any financial assistance from the feds.
"We're not really supportive of fish cleaning stations," he said, explaining that the mandate of SCH is strictly for the commercial fishing fleet and aquaculture. "We're not in the business of meeting the community's needs."
But since Fisheries and Oceans habitat is okay with the fish cleaning station, Timmermans said after SCH reviews the plan there shouldn't be any reason Ucluelet can't go ahead. "We're not going to object to improvements you would like to make."
The same is true for
changes at the parking lot. He suggested the authority forward a conceptual
plan of the proposed changes for SCH review.
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