A group of federal senators were in Prince Rupert on Saturday to get input on whether or not the Department of Fisheries and Oceans should get rid of lighthouse keepers and switch to automated lighthouses.

The senators arrived early in the morning to be greeted by a small group of protesters outside the civic centre where the three hours of meetings took place. The senators heard, behind closed doors, from a variety of different groups including representatives of floatplane operators, mariners and municipalities; all of who were against losing manned lighthouses.

Over the past few decades, lighthouses around the world have become automated, and people who worked in the slender towers along coastlines everywhere have been set aside as technological advances allow the lights to be left on. This issue arises once every few years and it has now crested again: a senate committee has been struck to gather advice on lighthouse automation in Canada, and this weekend, a senatorial panel will visit Prince Rupert.