Citizens must add their voices to the call to save historic landmarks.
by Bill Rompkey (May 26, 2011 in Victoria Times-Colonist)

Some lighthouses are lucky. At Saturna Island, Race Rocks, Active Pass and Fisgard, for example, local organizations have rallied round to help preserve historic towers or outbuildings for future generations.

But hundreds of others across Canada may disappear.

Saving Canada's lighthouses will depend on citizens pressuring parliamentarians, but also organizing themselves to guard these coastal sentinels.

The Canadian Coast Guard, hamstrung by lack of funds, has let lighthouses run down and wants to get rid of most of them. The coast guard says that in place of the traditional towers, a bare "light on a stick" can guide mariners at night.

But fishermen and boaters want those striking towers to stay on our headlands as daytime landmarks. So does almost anyone who's ever seen a lighthouse, because they touch the spirit.

On a practical note, lighthouses can also touch pocketbooks. Writing them off will not only erase a heritage of history and beauty, it will rob Canadians of future revenues.

Heritage means business. Just as tourists throng the "outmoded" castles of Europe, they will visit our lighthouses for generations to come -provided we keep them standing.

The towers that saved so many mariners are themselves in danger, despite the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act, known as the HLPA. This Senatesponsored legislation enables citizens to nominate any lighthouse for heritage status. The nomination takes place with no obligation.

But ultimately, heritage designation, which protects the light-tower from radical change or destruction, depends on a community group or other entity making the financial commitment to maintain a lighthouse.

Where neglect has brought corrosion and decay, such a commitment can be costly. That's probably why community takeovers under the HLPA are proceeding at a lame snail's pace.

The coast guard wants to get rid of more than 500 "surplus" lighthouses. But Canadians have nominated fewer than 50 for heritage status. More than 90 per cent remain on the chopping block.

A bipartisan report by the Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans is calling for urgent action to supplement the HLPA and save our lighthouses. Federal funding should bring "surplus" lighthouses up to a good state of repair before handing them off to citizens' groups.

And government should help the Heritage Canada Foundation, the only national organization working to protect Canada's historic places, mount a national campaign for lighthouse preservation.

But besides government action, lighthouses need help from citizens themselves. Hundreds of people told our Senate committee how they love lighthouses. Millions of Canadians presumably feel the same way. Now is the time to prove it.

Pushing politicians at all levels is a start, and the federal government has made one good move.

Though Canada's navigation lights are mostly automated, 50 lighthouses in Newfoundland and Labrador and British Columbia still employ lightkeepers. Citizens in both provinces told our Senate committee, with great passion, that they wanted those keepers to stay at their posts, guiding vessels and aircraft and sometimes saving lives.

Last December, our committee recommended keeping the keepers, and this March the federal government agreed, because of a tsunami of public support.

But the lightkeepers make up only part of a bigger issue. Lighthouses generally remain in danger.

Opportunities do exist to save them. Local groups can readily adopt lighthouses. Communities, individuals, and public-spirited corporations across Canada have shown the way, and some are reaping good revenues.

The latest Senate report on lighthouses quotes Carol Livingstone of the Prince Edward Island Lighthouse Society: "For more than a century, the lighthouses have looked after us as a country. It is now time for us, as the people of this country, to look after our lighthouses."

It can be done. But for lighthouses to stay standing, citizens need to get moving.

Bill Rompkey was chairman of the Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans during two recent studies on lighthouses.

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MINISTER SHEA HALTS LIGHTHOUSE DE-STAFFING

For immediate release: Mar 23, 2011

Ottawa, ON – Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, the Honourable Gail Shea today released the following statement in response to the Senate Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans report entitled Seeing the Light: Report on Staffed Lighthouses in Newfoundland and Labrador and British Columbia:

“One year ago today, I asked the Senate Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans to undertake an independent and thorough study of light-keeper services.

Their report, Seeing the Light: Report on Staffed Lighthouses in Newfoundland and Labrador and British Columbia was adopted by the Senate this week. It is unequivocal in its opinion that plans to remove light-keepers from currently staffed lighthouses in British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador be halted.

Our Government recognizes both the significance of lighthouses and light-keeper services to the coastal communities they now serve, as well as the important role the Canadian Coast Guard plays in keeping mariners safe.

Therefore, I have instructed Canadian Coast Guard officials to respect the Report and immediately halt plans to remove light-keepers from currently staffed lighthouses in British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Kate Davis
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
(613) 992-3474
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SENATE RECOMMENDS KEEPING STAFFED LIGHTSTATIONS.

The Senate Fisheries and Oceans Committee issued a report on December 21 that says lightkeepers are crucial to marine safety and should continue staffing Canada’s lighthouses.

The report's recommendations also include developing a long-term policy to ensure “continuation of a suitable level of staffing,” and that a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis be undertaken before the Coast Guard undertakes any further evaluation of lighthouses. The Senators issued their report following visits in November to coastal communities and lighthouses in Newfoundland and BC.

“It is clear that the Senators listened to all the mariners and aviators who said they need lightkeepers' services,” said Alice Woods, a Director of the Canadian Lightkeepers Association and principal lightkeeper at Chatham Point Lightstation north of Campbell River, BC. “Since federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea tasked the Senate to undertake a review and make these recommendations, we now expect that her to keep lightstations staffed as an essential safety service.”

In their report the Senators note that “any further destaffing of lighthouses will put mariners’ lives at risk at a time when government has been encouraging people to adopt a safety culture,” and that “it is more important than ever to maintain the human safety network of which lightkeepers are an essential element.”

Fisheries Minister Shea first announced plans to destaff Canada’s remaining 50 staffed lighthouses in September 2009. But massive public opposition prompted her to ask the Senate Fisheries Committee to conduct a review before any more lighthouses are scrapped.
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Open attachment below to read the full Senate Report.