Province's solution to dangerous harbour not impressing Keir Shore neighbours

Some people who live near Keir Shore say they're concerned about plans for a new landing area for some boats fishing out of Malpeque Harbour.

People who fish those watershave said for years that navigating the shallow channel in and out of the harbour can be dangerous, particularly whenboats areweighed down with heavy catches.

On Thursday night, the Prince Edward Island government held a public meeting onthe development plan and said work is set to begin this fall.

Larry Fingler, who lives in the area, said he knows something needs to be done to make the harbour safer, but thinks residents should have been consulted sooner.

"It makes me feel as though I don't count for anything," he saidin an interview Friday.

"Why has this gotten this far, and nobody has known about it?" he said."It's a done deal that's basically what they said."

In May, a mussel boat sank in Malpeque Harbour.Five crew members had to climb on to the roof of the vessel to await rescue.

Moving mussel landings to start

The plan is to widen Keir Shore Road to two lanes, and add a landing that will stretch out over 300 metres into the water.

The newlanding will only be used for mussels fishers to offload their catches. Boats will still tie up and leave from Malpeque Harbour.

Fishers have said this will make their work safer.But Derek Sewell, who also lives nearby, said he's concerned about traffic.

"They're going to take this road, for example, and turn it into a full two-lane road with ditches and everything so the tandem truck can go back and forth, kind of an unspecified number of times a day because it's not predictable," said Sewell told CBCNews.

The province saysthere could be eight to 12 trucksusing the road each day

Sewell saidthe landing zone itself seems like a "good solution on paper,"but he doesn't like how the province has gone about the project, particularlyconsultations with the public.

"This was not a meeting where they were looking for feedback from people. This was a meeting where they were telling us what was being done," he said.

"To me, that's not the role of government."

CBCNews reached out to the provincial government but did not receive a response by deadline.

$40M to move all wharf operations

Fishermen in the area have said they hope the entire wharf forMalpeque Habour will eventually be moved as well.

The harbour authority hascommissioned a study.It's still being assessed.

The federal government estimates it would cost $40 million to move the entire wharf.