Three dogs are in the care of the BC SPCA after being removed from a boat in danger of sinking last week in Porpoise Bay.
Sunshine Coast branch manager Cindy Krapiec said SPCA staff, with help from Sunshine Coast RCMP, boarded the boat Nov. 13 and removed the dogs.
There were no people on the boat at the time.
Krapiec said the dogs are doing well and the SPCA is treating the situation as “an ongoing file.”
“We are so grateful for the help of the RCMP, as well as the community members who came to the aid of the boat and the dogs,” she said.
The boat the dogs were on was a 100-foot (30.5-metre) vessel known as the Gulfstream, which has been a focus of concern for area residents in the past. It was one of at least two boats at anchor in the bay that got into trouble during stormy weather. A smaller sailboat ended up beached.
Marina owner Don MacKenzie and a group of volunteers helped pump out the Gulfstream to keep it from going down. He told Coast Reporter it’s not unusual to be called out three or four times a year to help boats in the area.
RCMP, District of Sechelt bylaw officers, and a team from Transport Canada were in Porpoise Bay in October to inspect one vessel and collect information on others. Transport Canada is expected to return for another round of inspections late this month.
Meanwhile, the political debate around how to handle derelict and abandoned vessels continues. The federal government’s Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act was introduced last month. It would prohibit vessel abandonment; strengthen owner responsibility and liability for hazardous vessels and wrecks, including costs for cleanup and removal; and empower the federal government to take proactive action on hazardous vessels.
With the government legislation on the books, a Liberal-dominated parliamentary committee ruled a private member’s bill on abandoned vessels from Nanaimo-Ladysmith NDP MP Sheila Malcolmson “non-votable.” Malcolmson’s bill would, among other provisions, make the Coast Guard responsible for removal of abandoned vessels. Malcolmson told the House of Commons on Monday the NDP plans to appeal the committee decision. Bill C-352 is supposed to come up for debate in early December.
