Stagg Editorial- February 1995

LIGHTHOUSES

Federal Transport Minister Doug Young has become embroiled in a controversy with Newfoundland legislator Walter Carter. Carter is leading the onslaught in Newfoundland against the automation of all lighthouses on the Atlantic seaboard. Essentially the Federal Ministry of Transport is confirming a process that has been underway for many years where lighthouse keepers are being replaced by automated beacons and computerized sensors.

Carter's images of foundering ships and drowning crewmen facing only a mute and sightless beacon is a powerful one. For Newfoundlanders it brings up both old and new images of people being plucked from the cruel sea by brave rescuers. The trite comments of Transport Canada functionaries that lighthouse keepers are rarely involved in rescue missions is simply not good enough. The coastal watch aspect of lighthouse keeping is something that is centuries old and should not be done away with in the interest of budgetary restraint. Better that Transport Canada layoff a few pencil pushers in Ottawa and maybe employ a few less security guards in these hallowed halls than that they dismiss those who are the virtual sentinel of a rugged coastline that holds more than a little treachery for those that go down to the sea in ships.

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