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.
12:45 p.m.
Bloc
Caroline Desbiens Bloc Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm having a coughing spell, so I'll have to leave it there.
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you.
We'll now go to Ms. Barron for two and a half minutes or less, please.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Lisa Marie Barron NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Mr. Dorward and Captain Temple.
I'm wondering, Captain Temple, if you can speak a little bit more about the debris.
Thank you for giving us some perspective on the amount and the items that are being washed up on shore from the Zim Kingston spill. I'm wondering if you can expand a little bit on what you have seen. Perhaps Mr. Dorward might be able to respond to this as well.
What happens when debris washes up on the coast, as far as your process goes?
12:45 p.m.
Coordinator, Environmental Sustainability, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation
That's an excellent question. Obviously, these containers are packed with marketable goods. Most of them are petroleum-based products. When these containers fall off the ship and sink to the ocean floor, it doesn't take long before the tidal action or the wave action of the ocean bangs these containers around. Corrosion occurs. Damage occurs to the container doors. They begin to break open, releasing the contents of these containers. Because they're petroleum-based, most of them do float, and due to our geographical location here along the west coast of Vancouver Island, they wind up along our shores.
Anybody who's been to Tofino or Long Beach, where Terry is calling in from today, can attest to the power of the waves that affect and impact the near-shore habitat. When you have these plastic products that then get carried in by the ocean currents and the weather systems and reach the shorelines, those waves and logs and rocks and everything that interacts in those near-shore habitats begin to break down these products into microplastics.
In their larger form, they're entanglement risks. They're risks to vessel strikes or wildlife entanglement, especially whales and other cetaceans or pinnipeds. When they start to break down in the near-shore environment into the microplastic level, they are then ingested by a multitude of species.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Lisa Marie Barron NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you, Captain Temple.
I so appreciate all this information. It's so important. It's clear that the information you're providing coincides with that of other witnesses who have come forward as well, so I appreciate that information. If you could send it in written form, that would be really helpful. I just want to make sure I'm using my time to ask another question as well.
I'm wondering if you—
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Lisa Marie Barron NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Oh, I missed it. Thanks so much.
If you could provide that in writing, that would be great.
Thank you.
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
Clifford Small Conservative Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to the witnesses for coming to our committee today for this very important study.
On March 29, we had Mr. Henderson, the deputy commissioner of operations for the Canadian Coast Guard, here at committee. He told us that a fundamental part of the Coast Guard's response plan is “direct and immediate communication with affected first nations”.
Mr. Dorward, you were just asked by my colleague Ms. Barron how quickly first nations were brought into this process. Am I right that you said you were notified a month later or something? Did you say that?
12:45 p.m.
Project Coordinator, Tribal Parks, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation
Josh, could you answer that, please?
12:50 p.m.
Coordinator, Environmental Sustainability, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation
Absolutely, Terry.
Yes, communication was not immediate from the shipper. It was reported immediately to the Coast Guard, and communications came in through the Coast Guard almost immediately. But when we were speaking of the lack of communication that took almost a month, that was the contractor, Amix Group, who was brought on by Danaos, the shipowner, who has shown, in our opinion, considerably inadequate abilities to communicate with local first nations or groups that are experts in these types of survey and recovery efforts.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Clifford Small Conservative Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
Okay. I'm sorry. I misunderstood that.
How would you assess the timeliness of the Canadian Coast Guard's communication with affected first nations and coastal communities during the MV Zim Kingston incident, as well as for marine emergencies in general?
12:50 p.m.
Coordinator, Environmental Sustainability, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation
I would highly support the effectiveness of the Coast Guard's communication abilities. They have done a fantastic job of keeping not only indigenous but also non-indigenous peoples along the coast exceptionally well informed through consistent releases and updates.
It's the Province of British Columbia as well. It hasn't been just the Coast Guard. Both the province and the Coast Guard have issued regular reports and have been extremely accessible by email or phone when any updates or information was sought by either our group or others along the coast.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Clifford Small Conservative Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
Do you have any recommendations or suggestions for improving the collaboration between the federal departments and agencies, NGOs, provincial and territorial agencies, municipalities and indigenous communities? Do you have anything to offer up on that?
12:50 p.m.
Coordinator, Environmental Sustainability, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation
The only caveat I would say in this instance, as we are speaking of the Zim Kingston, is that the buck has sort of been passed over to the contractor hired by Danaos, the shipowner. Amix Group, the contractor, has been charged with the survey and recovery efforts. I think we need to focus more on bringing that control back to the federal or provincial governments, because, as is evident from this instance, Amix Group has not done an adequate job of communicating, delivering or developing the type of survey or recovery efforts required for an incident of this scale. The buck needs to get back into the hands of the federal or provincial governments.
I'd like to turn it over to Terry for his comments on that as well.
12:50 p.m.
Project Coordinator, Tribal Parks, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation
We definitely need more support, but we do get a lot of information, which comes in from the Coast Guard, as Josh mentioned. We want to get to a place where we can collectively work together. First nations need to be taking leadership roles.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Clifford Small Conservative Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
How should the federal government ensure that adequate compensation for marine debris spills is available for affected coastal communities and responders?
12:50 p.m.
Coordinator, Environmental Sustainability, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation
That speaks to the results of what a task force, a dedicated working group or committee would provide. First, you have to identify what the larger regional capacity needs are in terms of support and funding, and then you can provide accurate metrics on exactly what that dollar figure and capacity support look like. However, we have to do the work first to identify what the broader-scale situation currently is and how we proceed to respond to that going forward.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you, Mr. Small.
We'll now go to Mr. Hardie for five minutes or less to finish up.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Again, thank you to the witnesses for some really valuable background on this.
Mr. Dorward, can you comment, on behalf of your community and perhaps more broadly on behalf of communities up and down the coast, on the quality and reliability of the communications network—i.e., cellphone coverage and broadband Internet access?
12:50 p.m.
Project Coordinator, Tribal Parks, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation
It's very poor. There are a lot of spotty areas. First nation connectivity is improving, but it still needs a lot of work. There are a lot of dead zones, even on Vancouver Island, and of course on the remote islands. It's very spotty.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
I would imagine along the west coast particularly it would be a challenge.
In terms of the actual capacity of your community to respond, give us an idea of how many times in an average year you'd be asked to respond to an incident.
12:55 p.m.
Project Coordinator, Tribal Parks, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation
Our community has received ongoing and annual training. We don't send people out if they're not trained up. We work almost year-round on coastal restoration projects.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Then, really, it's kind of a continuous exercise. It's not that you'll go for a couple of months and all of a sudden you get two or three calls for service like the fire department does or something like that.
I was interested in the challenge of maintaining some sort of continuity of experience and expertise in the community. People come and go. You'll train somebody up and then they'll leave or they're no longer available. Does that also represent a challenge for your ability to respond?