Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for inviting me to discuss the Canadian Coast Guard's readiness to assist in marine pollution incidents related to offshore oil and gas drilling.
Legislative changes to the Canada Shipping Act in 1993 resulted in the establishment of Canada's marine oil spill preparedness and response regime in 1995. The regime was established to respond to ship-source spills; however, other governments and agencies have benefited, and can benefit, from this preparedness capacity. This includes offshore platforms.
The regime, still in place today, is under the responsibility of Transport Canada, and governs oil spill response in Canadian waters. The regime was created through legislation to ensure that the potential polluters pay for industry's preparedness capacity. It is built on a partnership between government and industry.
The industry, through a bulk oil cargo fee, funds preparedness capacity of private companies called “response organizations”. There are four response organizations in Canada. Together, the industry provides the capacity to respond to its own oil spills.
The geographic area of response covered by the four Canadian certified response organizations include all waters as defined in the Canada Shipping Act--in the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay, and on the east and west coasts. It does not, however, include those waters located north of 60 degrees.
On the government side, the Canadian Coast Guard is the lead federal response agency for ship-source and mystery-source pollution spills into the marine environment. This specifically includes spills on or into water by ships, or spills on water in connection with the loading or unloading of pollutants from ships at oil handling facilities.
As for the waters located north of 60, the coast guard is the main respondent in the event of spills caused by ships. Although its mandate includes being in a state of preparedness and having a response capability in the event of ship-source pollution incidents, but not of those caused by offshore oil companies, the coast guard must be ready to intervene in case there is a marine pollution incident in Canadian waters.
We work in collaboration with our industry partners and certified response agencies in order to ensure a state of readiness in the event of an oil spill. As such, we conduct regular exercises and training activities.
Specifically, the coast guard maintains more than 80 response equipment depot sites across the country, of which 19 are in the Arctic. That includes containment, recovery, and storage capabilities as well as a cadre of 80 dedicated trained responders. Other coast guard assets, such as fleet vessels with trained fleet personnel, could also be tasked to assist. In addition, other government departments, including the Department of National Defence, Transport Canada, Environment Canada, and Public Safety Canada, would have a specific role to play in accordance with their mandates and would therefore be engaged as required.
Obviously response must be commensurate with risks. Therefore the coast guard's response capability is based on the principle of escalation. A response begins at the regional level and involves local coast guard and industry resources. Should the required response effort exceed regional capabilities, additional resources from other coast guard regions would be brought to the spill site. Similarly, industry resources—mainly response organization resources—can also be cascaded to the affected region.
In addition, should national resources prove insufficient, agreements are in place to obtain international assistance. In ratifying international treaties addressing marine pollution, Canada supports a principle of mutual aid to respond to marine pollution emergencies. Similar to the Canadian Coast Guard, response organizations have strategically placed equipment depot sites across the country, as well as a cadre of trained responders that could be deployed to the incident scene. Response organizations are part of the global response network, an international group of responders who have agreed to offer mutual aid when available.
Let me assure this committee and all Canadians that when facing a major spill from an offshore platform, the coast guard would provide all available resources to assist our federal partners, industry partners, and international partners to minimize the damage caused by the spill.
Thank you.