I'm here today to talk to you about marine spill response in Canada.
We are here neither to support nor to oppose the tanker moratorium. Our mandate, under the Canada Shipping Act, is to be prepared for spill response on the west coast of Canada regardless of where the spill happens. While we neither support nor oppose the bill, spill response and our ability to handle spills have played a central role in the conversation around energy export, market access, and shipping volumes.
In 1976 WCMRC began as an industry co-op under the name Burrard Clean Operations. At that time, it was our duty to provide spill response within the Port of Vancouver. Following the Exxon Valdez incident in 1989, the Canadian government established a public review panel on tanker safety and marine spill response capability.
The panel's first report included 107 recommendations that ultimately informed amendments to the Canada Shipping Act in 1995. The changes created an industry-funded and government-regulated spill response regime for all of Canada's coastal waters. WCMRC became the only dedicated response organization on the west coast.
Our state of preparedness is funded by membership fees from shipping companies and oil-handling facilities that operate on the west coast. Vessels greater than 400 tonnes are charged an annual membership, whereas charges for oil carried for commercial trade are based on volumes. In the event of a spill, the polluter is required by law to pay for cleanup costs. Should the spiller be unable to pay, there are international and Canadian funds available to pay for spill cleanup and claims related to spills. Those funds are the result of levies placed on industry.
The Canadian government sets the standards, and industry pays for the response organization, the role of which is to meet and exceed the standards. The Government of Canada requires them to pay for it so that Canadians do not have to.The spirit of the regime is that Canadian taxpayers are not responsible for the cost of response. For those who are concerned that industry ownership somehow impacts our ability to respond, know that the federal government sets standards and provides oversight to the regime and response. It is an excellent model, and the federal government is in the process of improving the regime.
The Canada Shipping Act requires that we recover up to 10,000 tonnes of oil off the water in 10 days. Tiered response times are also defined by the Shipping Act. For example, within the Port of Vancouver, WCMRC is required to be on scene responding in less than six hours. Currently, the Port of Vancouver is the only designated port on the west coast. WCMRC exceeds those planning standards on every level. Our average response time in the Lower Mainland over the last 10 years has been 60 minutes.
WCMRC has offices and warehouses located in Burnaby, Duncan, and Prince Rupert, and more than a dozen equipment caches strategically located along B.C.'s coast. We have a fleet of 42 vessels and booming capability along more than 36 kilometres. We have a skimming capacity of 550 tonnes, which is 20 times the Canada Shipping Act standard. WCMRC has successfully responded to both light and heavy oil spills. We have a range of skimmers that can handle all types of oil transported on the coast. We also train hundreds of contractors every year.
In the event of a spill, our organization is contracted by the polluters to clean up the spill on their behalf. The entire response is managed by a range of federal, provincial, and municipal partners, including first nations, health authorities, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Environment Canada, the B.C. Ministry of Environment, and others. The Canadian Coast Guard monitors the response and takes command if the polluter is unknown, or unable or unwilling to respond.
Currently, Transport Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard lead four pilot projects in Canada to develop area response plans based on risk assessment.
In B.C., the pilot project is focused on the southern shipping lane and includes partners from Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans, and the B.C. Ministry of Environment.
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