Two Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors have been invited to weigh in on federal legislation to deal with abandoned and broken-down boats cluttering Canada’s coastal waters.
Area A director Frank Mauro and Ian Winn, director for Area F, will get five minutes to critique Bill C-64, the Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act via the Standing Committee on Transport Infrastructure and Communities meeting on Feb. 12.
The parliamentary committee’s mandate is to “examine the work of Transport Canada, Infrastructure Canada and their portfolio agencies and partners,” according to its website. The directors will attend via video-conference at a federal building in Vancouver.
Bill C-64 would give the Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks the force of law in Canada, and prohibit owners from abandoning their boats, strengthen liability and responsibility for costs for cleanup and removal, and give the federal government the jurisdiction to clean up hazardous vessels. It underwent its second reading and was referred to the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in December 2017.
Winn’s primary concern with the bill is about jurisdictional responsibility. “What we’ve seen in the past and what I hope will be addressed in C-64 is if you’ve got a spill you can make a phone call and you don’t have to have a matrix… You just get into this jurisdictional quagmire.”
He also says that funding the containment and removal of neglected vessels remains a challenge. “It’s all well and good to have Bill C-64 that lays out the responsibilities and who’s going to do what, but ultimately you need money to do it. If the owner of the vessel isn’t known and it’s abandoned, then where is the money going to come from?”
Transport Canada launched an abandoned boats program in May 2017, which provides $6.85 million in funding support to remove and dispose of small boats that pose a hazard. A new intake of grant applications is expected in March 2018.
Grants cover up to 75 per cent of the cost of removing an abandoned vessel, but Winn said the remaining 25 per cent can be prohibitive, especially if applications are submitted by community organizations.
Mauro, a member of the Pacific Region Harbour Authority Advisory Committee and chair of the Harbour Authority in Pender Harbour, also sees jurisdictional authority as a problem. “While the municipalities may have other options, the SCRD can’t go in there and fund the 25 per cent of the removal cost. That has to be funded from somewhere and local groups have trouble coming up with that kind of funding, so that’s a big limitation we have to deal with.”
On Jan. 26, the shíshálh Nation hosted a workshop with SCRD directors and Sechelt councillors in attendance to share information about the grant application process and present “a unified voice” on the Sunshine Coast, Mauro said.
Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, is compiling a list of abandoned vessels in her constituency.
“There was a vessel taken out of Plumper Cove recently, there was another one taken out of Caulfield Cove recently, one in Squamish,” she told Coast Reporter. “The complementary piece is changing the legislation so owners have a lifetime responsibility for their vessel and so groups at the community level have actual authority to do something about it.”
