Evidence of meeting #125 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was boats.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
We'll now go to Madame Desbiens for two and a half minutes, and then to Ms. Barron to conclude.
Bloc
Caroline Desbiens Bloc Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I just want to commend Mr. Watts and Mr. White for their skill and determination in pro-environmental recovery. I say so wholeheartedly and with much admiration.
Your efforts are truly focused on healthier, more balanced lifestyles.
I would like to take advantage of this time to say that we hear your position and your needs, and that we will echo your recommendations in our report as much as possible.
I'd like to hand over the remaining minute and a half of my speaking time to my colleague Ms. Barron.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Okay. That's a minute and forty seconds plus your own two and a half minutes.
NDP
Lisa Marie Barron NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm sorry, I was waiting for an answer to your question.
Thank you very much, Mrs. Desbiens.
It's great that I have that extra time, because I was hoping to ask a bit of a bigger question of both of you.
Chief Watts, I'll start with you. I'm curious about this: If first nations were able and interested in taking on the work of helping to clean up the vessels, and if they were funded appropriately and supported, what do you think could be possible, and what would obviously be so much different from what we're seeing right now? What would that look like?
Elected Chief Councillor, Tseshaht First Nation
As I've shared before, even with the capacity, we have 10 boats as a nation. We've got monitoring staff. We've got 10 different staff who are doing different things. We as a nation are also doing a bunch of other work. We have multiple tasks that we have to do, and we'd still probably want to partner with other groups. I use the Coastal Restoration Society just as an example. There are other groups that are out there.
To paint that picture, obviously the resources are important and the boats are important, but in order to do it better, as I've said before, let's focus on prevention. Let's actually be doing the work to monitor boats before they become an issue in the first place. That's where the funding and the resources need to be looked at. Let's not wait until this boat is barely hanging on by a thread to go out and clean it up after it's been done.
How you do that? There's a ton of experts who could come up with monitoring ideas for checking boats on docks that are of concern and finding out a real method to actually going out and assessing these boats before they become an issue.
For us as a nation, we'd love to be a part of it. We'd love to find partners. We don't pretend to have all the answers, but we're here and we're committed to working with everybody, because this coast is so sacred to us as well. These are our waterways. This is what feeds our community.
NDP
Lisa Marie Barron NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you so much, Chief Watts.
I'm wondering if you have any thoughts on that, Mr. White.
Director, Marine Division, Snuneymuxw First Nation
It's the same thing, to echo what Chief Watts said. We have our marine division. We have 20 employees. We have a dedicated staff for emergency response. However, like I said, we don't have infrastructure and we don't have capacity, so we also partner with the Coastal Restoration Society. We partner with a lot of different people to get out there.
If we had long-term, sustainable funding for us to get out there and actually do some removal and mitigation.... We're at the level now where we're monitoring the vessels. We've got Barnacle systems that we put on these vessels that'll tell you when the boats list. They'll tell you if they're taking on water. We're putting stickers on boats. We're there; we just need to move it a bit further ahead and either, like Chief Watts said, partner with people or start developing our own way to remove these vessels in partnership with the Canadian Coast Guard and Transport Canada.
NDP
Lisa Marie Barron NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you, Mr. White.
Chair, how much time do I have left after that conversation?
NDP
Lisa Marie Barron NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you.
Mr. White, perhaps you could expand a little bit. We know that it shouldn't be easier for owners of vessels to abandon their vessels than to dispose of them properly. This is a key theme throughout all the discussions I have.
I'm wondering if you could speak to any knowledge of a turn-in program or what it might look like to develop one so that owners would know exactly what they can do with their vessels once they've reached the end of their lives.
Director, Marine Division, Snuneymuxw First Nation
Absolutely.
You just have to communicate it properly—get it out to the people on the wharfs and docks. Communication will be a key point to that. It's about funding to do that type of program and disposal, along with a proper disposal site. As I said, I've talked to some of the boat construction people along the inside of Nanaimo's harbour. They're telling me, “We're here, and we're ready to start dealing with derelict vessels, so let's get a plan together.”
I think implementing an amnesty program like that would be a huge value for the coastline.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you, Ms. Barron.
I want to say, on behalf of the committee, a huge thank you to Mr. White and Mr. Watts for sharing their knowledge with the committee today as we move through this particular study.
For notice purposes alone, at Monday's meeting, we will resume our study of northern cod.
Thank you, everyone.
With that, the meeting is adjourned.