The Town of Gaspé Is Acquiring the L'Anse-au-Griffon Harbour Infrastructure

The Town of Gaspé is acquiring the L'Anse-au-Griffon harbour infrastructure under a $1.9 million grant from Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The transfer will officially take place on March 31, 2017. As the new owner, the Town of Gaspé will continue to operate the harbour as a public facility.

The L'Anse-au-Griffon harbour infrastructure is mainly used for tourism and recreational boating. The funding will be used to perform a variety of repairs and upgrades, such as construction of a service area and a new launch ramp, repair and stabilization of wharf facades, and the installation of floating wharves.

The transfer was made possible by the Small Craft Harbours Divestiture Program. The purpose of this program is to transfer ownership and operation of recreational harbours to interested third parties—other federal departments, Crown corporations, provinces or municipalities—that are better able to operate them effectively and respond to the needs of the local economy. For L'Anse-au-Griffon, this will allow for better support for tourism development, which will benefit local businesses, harbour users, and the entire region. Note that the new owner must commit to maintaining public access to the harbour and its services for at least five years.

The Small Craft Harbours Divestiture Program allows Fisheries and Oceans Canada to focus its resources and investments on harbours that are critical to the fishing industry. In Quebec alone, there are 7000 jobs in the primary and secondary marine fishing sectors, which play a major role in the local economy in certain regions.

Since the creation of the program in 1995, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has successfully divested over 1100 harbours across the country.

Michel Plamondon
Communications