Evidence of meeting #15 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 marine.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chair, Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board
Maybe I'll step in first.
Mr. Chair, again, we can't form an opinion unless we investigate something. We have investigated, for example, issues relating to fatigue of watchkeepers and made recommendations with respect to that, but to make a general comment about whether masters are subject to certain pressures or not is not something we could generalize unless we had the evidence through our investigations to support it.
Conservative
Clifford Small Conservative Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
Okay. We'll get specific. We'll go right to the Zim Kingston.
In this case, do you think the master was under significant commercial pressure to arrive on time? Have you investigated that yet?
Chair, Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board
Go ahead, Mr. Harvey.
Director, Marine Investigations, Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board
Thank you, Ms. Fox.
As you mentioned earlier, this is an ongoing investigation and it wouldn't be prudent for us to discuss specifics around the Zim Kingston at this time.
Perhaps I could answer your question in terms of the transportation system right now. I mentioned earlier the number of containers that are shipped worldwide. I read a figure that says 80% or 90% of the goods exchanged worldwide are shipped around the world, and a lot of this is by these container ships.
You mentioned rough weather as well. There is rough weather that could be incurred by the vessel, but there are phenomena that occur when the vessel is sailing in what we would consider relatively calm seas when the stability of the vessel can still be affected and the stresses that are incurred in securing the cargo are exceeded, and not just generally through a violent storm.
Conservative
Clifford Small Conservative Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
Based on your previous investigations of incidents such as this, what have you found to be the number one cause for the spilling of containers into the ocean?
Chair, Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board
Go ahead, Mr. Harvey.
Director, Marine Investigations, Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As Ms. Fox identified earlier, the investigation that the Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board has undertaken into lost containers over the last 10 years has not been significant. However, we are looking at lessons learned, or the cause and contributing factors identified by international occurrences.
As I mentioned earlier, oftentimes the stresses that are undergone by the lashing mechanisms on board these container vessels are exceeded. Sometimes the stability of the vessel is compromised, either in inclement weather or through synchronization with the wave period or the rolling motion of the vessel, which can cause the vessel to heel over and to exert forces on these containers.
It's been documented, as well, that there is potentially improper loading of these containers when it comes to the weight. That's being addressed at the international body. There's also the condition or the maintenance of the securing arrangements on board the vessel. These are generally things that are seen coming out of the investigations internationally.
Conservative
Clifford Small Conservative Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
Who determines the maximum allowable height of container stacking? I guess it has to do with the size of the vessel as well.
Who is responsible for making that judgment or that regulation?
Director, Marine Investigations, Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board
The stability of the container vessel is assessed and the amount of cargo that the vessel can carry is documented in the cargo securing manual. This manual is approved by the flag or by the country of the vessel, and it is done in accordance with international standards. This is then provided to the crew and to the shippers for adherence, or to review the loading of the vessel to make sure it is in accordance with the approved cargo securing manual.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you, Mr. Small.
We'll now go to Mr. Hardie for five minutes or less, to fill up our first hour.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was hoping to get one last question in, so this should be fairly short.
Mr. Harvey, you mentioned international standards. Who in Canada contributes our input to the international standards?
To Mr. Small's question about stacking, where things are stored on the vessel, the securing mechanisms, their efficacy and the safety of mariners, who in Canada—what body—contributes our input to the international standards?
Chair, Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board
Go ahead.
Director, Marine Investigations, Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board
The lead department in Canada for interaction with the International Maritime Organization in these effects is Transport Canada. They're the regulator of federal shipping.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you for that, Mr. Hardie. It gives us a bit of extra time now to make sure we can complete our second hour.
In closing our first hour, I'd like to thank the witnesses from the transportation sector for—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
What's that? We could probably clew out and get the full hour in now and the next one, too.
All right, I'll allow a question.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Thank you. I just have a closing question.
Ms. Fox, you mentioned how the board's number of investigations has been limited because of your limited resources.
Has the board's annual funding had any substantial increases since the oceans protection plan was announced in 2016, or has it basically been inflation and typical increases?
Chair, Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board
In the interest of time, I'll just say we did receive a top-up of our budget about three years ago to deal with a gap that had built up over the years, primarily due to salary increases without budget increases.
Again, we are adequately resourced for the types of investigations that we do, and we have the provision to go to Parliament for extra funding if we do not, but we did not get any specific extra funding as a result of the oceans protection plan.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you again, Ms. Fox, Mr. Harvey and Mr. Lapointe, for your participation here in committee today. I'm sure the information you provided will help in our final report on this particular study.
We'll recess for a moment now before we switch over to the second panel, to make sure our witnesses are sound-checked and the interpretation is working okay.
Thank you again.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
We're back.
We'll welcome our witnesses for the second hour of our testimony today. From the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, we have Josh Temple, coordinator, environmental sustainability; and Terry Dorward, project coordinator, tribal parks.
We'll now hear opening remarks from Mr. Dorward for five minutes or less.
Go ahead when you're ready.
Terry Dorward Project Coordinator, Tribal Parks, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation
Good day, Mr. Chair and esteemed members of the committee.
My name is Terry Dorward.
[Witness spoke in Nuu-chah-nulth and provided the following text:]
Uu-claw-shish Seit-Cha E-stuck ShiKk Tla-o-qui-aht.
[Witness provided the following translation:]
Hello, my name is Seit-cha, one who swims in the water, and I am from Tla-o-qui-aht.
[English]
I live on the west coast of what is now called Vancouver Island. The lands and waters in Tla-o-qui-aht territory are vulnerable to marine pollution because of their geographic location and geological composition.
With the industrialization of the waters around us, longshore drift—the prevailing movement of the water—constantly brings marine debris onto our shores, debris that threatens the sensitive soft sediment shorelines with plastic, metal and hydrocarbon pollution. We know this pollution settles into these sediments, which accumulate and threaten marine life for years. We say “marine life” in these rooms, but most of us here know that life to be salmon, clams, herring, crab and more.
On the west coast of Vancouver Island, there is a vibrant and sustainable model of collaboration occurring. Since 2017, work has been done by the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, in partnership with local NGOs and communities, to build our collective capacity to manage our shared resources and respond to the growing challenges we face. More recently, Tla-o-qui-aht and local NGOs have successfully worked in partnership and coordination with federal and provincial governments to address these threats. These efforts have resulted in the cleaning of over 400 kilometres of shoreline, the removal of 100 derelict vessels and the dismantling of abandoned aquaculture sites along the west coast of Vancouver Island. This work has been vital to revitalizing marine environments within Tla-o-qui-aht territory.
Central to these efforts has been the focus on building the already incredible capacity of the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation and communities to respond to these challenges. Doing so has deepened the conversations around climate change and other environmental issues, conversations that have occurred within our nation for a very long time.
I bring this up to highlight that this coordinated approach is both applicable and scalable to meet the needs of other marine issues, including threats from marine cargo container spills. I want you to know that we already have systems in place, and we have taken care to develop these methods over the past years and over the lifetime of the Tla-o-qui-aht peoples.
We know that Tla-o-qui-aht peoples are stewards. We have within our communities and our collaborations baseline environmental information. This looks like on-the-ground monitoring and reporting by guardians and NGOs. We also have multi-generational local knowledge of marine conditions, environments and capacities to assist with response planning and implementation.
Stewardship is not a new practice, but new industrial ways of ensuring that our territory is taken care of have been developed in partnership with NGOs and partners. This means we have a shelf-ready environmental remediation framework that is informed by stewardship goals and relies on established protocols. We have successful methods to collectively address local environmental issues such as marine debris, derelict vessels and marine remediation that can be scaled.
We have developed and continue to develop a skilled workforce through tailored environmental training. Tla-o-qui-aht members and coastal first nations along the west coast of Vancouver Island have received training on marine remediation, and NGOs have benefited from the shared knowledge and protocols to complete marine spill response work safely and appropriately together. With this knowledge, we have tailored OHS protocols and training targeted to safety in the marine environment.
We know this approach works here on the west coast of Vancouver Island. We also know it works elsewhere in direct response to marine incident response. Similar to the approach taken on the north shore in Haida Gwaii, we can move forward to adopt a shared and inclusive approach to marine incident response. This approach includes inclusive and equitable decision-making, which means recognizing and including all affected territorial boundaries and impacted governments. The balance of power is key to supporting consensus decision-making towards common goals.
We have shared responsibilities for marine resources. This is a human problem. This is not a Vancouver Island problem, a Tla-o-qui-aht problem or a B.C. problem. We are all responsible for and dependent upon these diverse coastal and marine ecological systems for our social, cultural and commercial ways of being. They must be taken care of and made a priority.
In light of what we know here and our practices that have succeeded for time out of mind, I ask that these resources and contributions be matched by the federal and provincial governments in two specific ways.
First, we require direct research, specifically for the west coast, and a commitment to a disaster plan and emergency preparedness that includes risk assessment and vulnerability studies specific to coastal communities. All of this must be informed by those with the most knowledge and understanding of the coastal waters, vulnerable ecosystems and community capacities.
Second, we require direct funding to build response capacity for coastal first nations, and to provide emergency training and response materials to first nation communities who are best positioned to be the first responders in the event of a spill. We know we can safely and effectively mobilize to reduce response times and mitigate the challenges of bringing in distant federal response agencies like Transport Canada, the Coast Guard and external contractors.
I've stated previously that these requests are not just for the benefit of Tla-o-qui-aht, Vancouver Island, coastal first nations or B.C. Spill responses, marine disasters and loss of life likely affect all of us.
I hope I've spoken to the reality today and uplifted the future reality of what collaboration and adequate resources can look like.
I'd like to pass it over to my colleague, Captain Josh Temple, for his introduction.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
I'm sorry, but we've gone well over the five minutes allotted for the opening statement. We'll hopefully get something out during questions that will come your way.
We'll now go to Mr. Arnold for six minutes or less, please.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Thank you for appearing before the committee today. This is all a very important consideration in your territory.
You mentioned that you already have response systems in place and that you have received training. Do you have formal agreements with the federal or provincial governments for the work you perform on these responses?