Environment committee  No, but I don't know whether the issue has ever been raised under the Canada Shipping Act.

Environment committee  I'm not aware of any prison sentences that have ever been imposed under the Canada Shipping Act.

Environment committee  It may be policy, but that doesn't address the conflicting legislation.

Environment committee  Has it worked? Perhaps. But as I say, I don't think there has ever been any imprisonment under the Canada Shipping Act. Are you saying that if this bill is passed, we're going to have the same policy? That's kind of the problem, I guess, in that we don't know whether that will be

Environment committee  Well, that might be an answer, but it's kind of an odd way to go about it. Why pass a piece of legislation that you know you can't...? You're going to pass a policy that says you're not going to enforce it.

Environment committee  Normally that's done by way of wording in the legislation that defines “foreign vessel” or whatever. That's the way it's done in--

Environment committee  The one that defines “foreign vessel”?

Environment committee  We know. We've already established that's not the way it's done in the Canada Shipping Act. That doesn't mean they did it right in the Canada Shipping Act.

Environment committee  Clearly, they did it wrong, because they had to correct it by implementing a policy.

Environment committee  Well, normal.... You have one act where what really happened is that they overlooked the problem and then they implemented the policy.

Environment committee  Yes, very broadly.

Environment committee  Pretty much all we see is oil. Of course, theoretically you certainly could have--

Environment committee  I suppose there could be anything else that a ship carries and dumps. We had canola oil in Vancouver, which was considered a pollutant.

Environment committee  I don't know about iron ore pellets, but it could certainly be any other type of cargo like that. But that's not supposed to happen.

Environment committee  No, it doesn't affect the fact that most of the pollution is oil, and that's what those conventions deal with. There's also the hazardous and noxious substances convention, which is being worked on.