Evidence of meeting #16 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 response.
A recording is available from Parliament.
April 7th, 2022 / 11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Thank you, Chair.
I have a question for Mr. Hall to follow up on Mr. Zimmer's questioning.
I take it there are no specialized vessels currently in design that can retrieve lost containers?
11:50 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Shipping Federation of Canada
I wouldn't go quite that far. Are there any that were designed for recovery of containers specifically? I'm not aware of any. Are there vessels that have specialized equipment that could do so? Yes, I believe there are.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
There are...? Okay.
Just out of curiosity, when incidents of lost containers occur, because some of the testimony that was given.... Do they occur closer to the container ship reaching its port of destination or on the open sea or everywhere? It appears that in a lot of cases it has been as they have been reaching their destination.
Are there any statistics on that?
11:55 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Shipping Federation of Canada
I'm sorry. If there are, I'm not aware of any. I would speculate that the loss could be anywhere.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Okay.
I have another question. You referenced that Canada should look at modelling its regime on Australia's and the United Kingdom's, I believe you said. Could you elaborate a bit more on what they're doing that you feel is a better operation from a recovery perspective than what we're doing in Canada?
11:55 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Shipping Federation of Canada
Thank you.
Well, it's not necessarily from the recovery standpoint, but from the initiation of the declared emergency—
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
I'm sorry. Yes, that's where I was going—when the emergency is declared.
11:55 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Shipping Federation of Canada
Right.
The position they created, the secretary of state's representative for maritime salvage and intervention, is that one entity. It is a person or a position that has the required authority and knowledge of that flag state's response regime overall and all of the various agencies that feed into it. That position is able to make recommendations or have the decision-making power to cause certain things to happen in the very early days.
The—
11:55 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Shipping Federation of Canada
No, it does not, not at all.
11:55 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Shipping Federation of Canada
The example used in the tanker safety expert panel's report from Lord Donaldson's review in the U.K. is that of a vessel at risk of sinking in the English Channel. The single entity I referenced took the decision to bring the vessel into a place of refuge and ground it intentionally. It prevented massive pollution and damage to the environment by taking an early decision to bring the vessel in and take that course of action. Otherwise, it could have foundered at sea, and it likely would have foundered at sea, with significant pollution.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Okay. Thank you.
My next question is for Mr. Butterworth.
Mr. Butterworth, you referenced the collaboration between the province and the feds and the first nations. You also began to identify a number of funding programs.
Are you familiar with the federal government's indigenous community boat volunteer pilot program, where DFO provides funding to first nations communities to buy equipment and to do training to respond to emergencies? Also, does the provincial program collaborate with the federal program?
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Environmental Emergencies and Land Remediation, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, Government of British Columbia
I'm not familiar with that program off the top of my head, but I can certainly look into that, if that's useful.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
It might be.
You gave us a lengthy list of funding programs by the Government of British Columbia that assist in this organization. We've heard testimony indicating that more funding could be provided to better equip and train people—especially first nations communities, who are usually located closer to where incidents do occur and can in a lot of cases be the primary first responder.
I believe that one of our witnesses who appeared today said that a first nations community received funding through this program. I would like it if you could provide to the committee how the B.C. government would collaborate with that program to ensure that first nations communities receive adequate funding to be trained and to buy equipment.
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Environmental Emergencies and Land Remediation, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, Government of British Columbia
That is a fabulous question. As I'm sure you're aware, doing new collaborations and putting out funding is way above my station as a civil servant. We can definitely look into that and take it up through the relevant areas. We're always looking to collaborate with the federal government. For any way that we can leave funding that is already in place, we do so. Starting a whole a new funding program, that would take—
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Environmental Emergencies and Land Remediation, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, Government of British Columbia
No, from our side, from a provincial side....
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you, Mr. Morrissey.
We'll now go to Madame Desbiens for two and half minutes, please.
11:55 a.m.
Bloc
Caroline Desbiens Bloc Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank the witnesses for being with us today.
What Dr. Langlois has told us about the invisible residues that end up in our water is concerning to us all.
I watched a documentary a few years ago called Cargos: la face cachée du fret. It was directed by French producer Denis Delestrac.
We know that most vessel operators are not subject to tax laws, labour standards laws, or ship capacity and safety regulations.
Mr. Hall, in your opinion, do we have the power to legislate, a power to compel, with respect to the safety of vessels operating in our waters?
Noon
President and Chief Executive Officer, Shipping Federation of Canada
The simple answer is yes, Canada does, through its signatory status to various IMO conventions and through the Canada Shipping Act and its various regulations. There is a very extensive and relatively robust regime for ensuring that vessels comply with international and Canadian regulations.
That question might be fully answered by Transport Canada, but my simple, short answer is yes, there is a robust regime in place.
Noon
Bloc
Caroline Desbiens Bloc Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
Is this regime verifiable?
Does the Canadian Coast Guard monitor on a regular basis?
Noon
President and Chief Executive Officer, Shipping Federation of Canada
It is verifiable, yes, but not by the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard has no mandate over those types of regulations. That would all be Transport Canada, but there are mechanisms built into the various codes and international regulations that call for auditing and regular inspections of the vessel and the crew.
Noon
Bloc
Caroline Desbiens Bloc Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
Thank you.
I know that navigation can sometimes be difficult on the St. Lawrence River, and that some tankers carrying oil are exposed to dangers and sometimes come close to disasters. These risks concern us in Quebec.
Noon
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you, Madame Desbiens.
We'll now go to Ms. Barron, for two and a half minutes, please.