Fisheries Committee on May 9th, 2017

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

On a different topic here, we've talked about ship noise or the impact on the environment that way. We heard last year about a whale strike. I think it was by a cruise ship.

What initiatives are taking place in that way to avoid marine mammal strikes and so on? You really have to wonder what happened there. If you ever try to catch a fish with your hand, you realize you have almost no hope. Why are they not able to avoid those impacts? Do you have any indication?

[Don Krusel]

I think the answer is, as we have been both mentioning, it's an area where there's not a lot of science yet. I think there's a lot of effort now to try to understand the impact. There's a belief I think that the noise level of vessels and certain-sized vessels may impact the mammals, and why they come close to a vessel or are not able to avoid impact.

You have to appreciate that a captain on a bridge of a vessel can't see right below the bow of the vessel so it's more the mammal is—

[Robert Lewis-Manning]

If it's all right with you, I'll be very quick.

Two other points. First, in fact...a partnership of the Port of Prince Rupert, the Port of Vancouver, and the industry. The Vancouver Aquarium produced a booklet for awareness of marine mammals, and that's an education advocacy program for ships arriving on the west coast. Second, I think we're within a couple of years of having a real-time system for marine mammal tracking, and Ocean Networks Canada is leading that effort with the technology. I think we will have technical solutions to avoid ship strikes, as you have described, within a fairly short period of time.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Can you describe that program a little further, or what you think might be coming?

[Robert Lewis-Manning]

I'm not closely involved with it, but I do know that Ocean Networks Canada is working, in partnership with the federal government, to develop a real-time tracking system, where, literally, on the bridge of a ship, probably through an app or an iPad of some sort, you'll know where marine mammals are located. That will be done through an acoustic network of underwater monitors.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Robert Sopuck]

Good. Thank you very much.

We have Mr. Finnigan for five minutes.

[Pat Finnigan, Liberal, Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB]

I only have a couple of questions, and if some of my—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Robert Sopuck]

Keep in mind, colleagues, we have a vote coming up, and so the bells will start at 10:40.

Mr. Finnigan.

[Pat Finnigan, Liberal, Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB]

Thanks for being here.

This is maybe to Mr. Lewis-Manning, and also Mr. Krusel. We all know that MPAs are important to protect marine life and the ecosystem and all of that. On the industry side, would you say that just putting some order into the shipping lanes and everything, just that alone...? Would it be a benefit to undergo these processes, if you ultimately believe that, too?

[Robert Lewis-Manning]

I do. It's a great question, and I do think it would be valuable, hence why I've referred to formal marine spatial planning. There is a need. I think it's important that not only MPAs are established, but we have a parallel process for areas of high human activity. That's why I've mentioned it, and we do think it is important.

[Pat Finnigan, Liberal, Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB]

Mr. Krusel.

[Don Krusel]

Absolutely. Actually, Mr. Lewis-Manning said earlier that once you have them designated, you can focus on those laneways with technology, and improve them once they're established.

[Pat Finnigan, Liberal, Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB]

Our MPAs will be established within Canadian waters, of course, and then once we're out of there.... My second question would be: what's the experience of the shipping industry in other jurisdictions? Does the U.S. have MPAs, and how updated or how advanced are they compared to us? Are there any issues that we should be aware of when we go into other MPAs around the world or along our coasts?

[Robert Lewis-Manning]

To be very brief, I don't think one is better than the other, but I think there are lessons to be learned in some of the process that's happened in the U.S. around marine spatial planning. Often we turn to that as an example of how stakeholders have been engaged in a process with a deliberate outcome. I go back to my previous comment about marine spatial planning. There are good examples outside Canada in order to manage that sustainability piece with industrial activity.

[Pat Finnigan, Liberal, Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB]

Mr. Krusel.

[Don Krusel]

I don't have any particular knowledge to be able to answer that.

[Pat Finnigan, Liberal, Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB]

That will be all I have. I don't know if any of my colleagues want to take some of my time.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

I'd like to go back to your carbon footprint, which I find intriguing, on the Port of Prince Rupert.

[Don Krusel]

Well, it's a combination of factors. We don't have as much truck traffic. In fact, we have very little truck traffic because—

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

So your ability is they come right off the vessel onto the railbeds, and then cross the country?

[Don Krusel]

The rail tracks are right on the terminal, and so quite literally the container is off-loaded from the vessel and put right onto the train, and the train leaves within hours of the vessel arriving. Second, the rail grade of the track to Prince Rupert, through the Rocky Mountains, is the flattest grade of any rail track on the west coast of North America, and therefore you have less locomotive and pulling power. You can pull the same length of train, and a longer train, with less locomotive power and with less diesel. There's a lot less. We have it measured by comparison. It's a very low carbon footprint trade corridor.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

This is a little off the subject, but sometimes in planning on an economic scale, some economic activity is more conducive to being moved away from highly populated, congested areas.

[Don Krusel]

There's no doubt about it and this is a challenge. It's not just an environmental challenge. It's also a transportation challenge that in the ports located in major metropolitan areas—and we talk about it in the transportation industry—the crucial part is the last mile and even more than the last mile. It's the last mile that moves through a major metropolitan area. Everything slows down. There's traffic congestion. There's road congestion. This impacts not only the reliability of the movement of goods but also the timing of goods. It slows it down, and it also increases the impact on the environment, both socially and ecologically.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Robert Sopuck]

I think that's it.

Mr. Stetski.

[Wayne Stetski, NDP, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

How does the B.C. ferry fleet do in the measurement of noise that's currently happening in Vancouver? Where do they fit in the scale?