Evidence of meeting #82 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was moratorium.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
That's fair enough. I think the committee members would like to see those models to make a good decision on the bill.
Thank you.
3:55 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, everybody, for being here.
Most of my questions will go to you, Mr. Lick. You mentioned that you're putting towing capacity on Coast Guard vessels, and we're also acquiring two new vessels for the west coast that are capable of heavy-duty towing.
3:55 p.m.
Director General, Operations, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Yes, that's correct.
3:55 p.m.
Director General, Operations, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Right now we're working on where it would be located, but typically we're looking at one vessel in the southern portion of the west coast and one vessel located somewhere in the northern portion of the west coast, yes.
3:55 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Part of the reason for asking is that we heard of an episode not that long ago in which a container ship was in trouble off the west coast of Vancouver Island, and we had to rely on the U.S. Coast Guard to come down and rescue it.
Would we have the capability to look after that ourselves when these ships are in place?
3:55 p.m.
Director General, Operations, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I'll just correct the honourable member on the first part.
It was actually the CCGS Gordon Reid that rescued that vessel. The U.S. Coast Guard was able and willing to help, and we were calling upon them, but we actually rescued that vessel.
On the second part of your question, the towing capacity that we're adding to our own vessels currently, as well as the chartering or leasing of two heavier tow-capable vessels, will absolutely give us greater capacity on the west coast to deal with that type of incident.
3:55 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
A lot of people on the west coast were very happy when a previous decision to close the Kitsilano Coast Guard base was reversed. Then, of course, added to that was a training capacity for people up and down the west coast.
What's the state of that program right now?
3:55 p.m.
Director General, Operations, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
The program is ongoing. We're ramping up that capacity as a training facility. While it may be a training facility as well, we're also moving our training capacity across the entire west coast. It's possible that not all the training will be done at Kitsilano. It may be done elsewhere, in local first nations communities and so on, where we can have better access to and train with the people, integrating those indigenous first nations communities into the safety systems.
That program is ramping up as we speak.
4 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
There were some issues that some of us had early on—I'm looking at my friend from the NDP—about the closure of the Comox MCTS base. Even today, we still see over 300 outages a month affecting MCTS capabilities—mostly, I understand, to do with the third party provider part of the system. That seems to be the weak link.
Are there any plans to replace that provider or to further harden that system?
4 p.m.
Director General, Operations, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We see many more third party issues in the eastern part of Canada. The west coast has more robust microwave links that actually help us, although there still are some third parties. As I said in my opening remarks, the OpNet, or operational network project, is designed to provide further redundancy and less reliance on those third party service lines.
Yes, absolutely, the system will be more reliable, and there will be better redundancy. That's being designed as we speak, right now.
4 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Do you have any concerns about the articulated tugboat-barge combos that will be moving oil products up and down the Inside Passage, closer to shore? There have been some concerns about that, particularly since the Nathan E. Stewart incident.
4 p.m.
Director General, Operations, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I know that we've been working with Transport Canada, and they've been working diligently to take a closer look at what I would call a tighter inspection process for those types of vessels. While that's not our responsibility, we are continuing in our MCTS centres—in essence, on behalf of Transport Canada—to do closer monitoring of those vessels as they move up and down the west coast.
4 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
We see that this legislation would involve Transport Canada in monitoring ship movements and inspecting for forbidden products.
Is that likely to be delegated to the Coast Guard, or in your view will everybody—especially Transport Canada—have the capacity to undertake this new activity?
4 p.m.
Director General, Operations, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We're not generally changing our responsibilities with respect to this bill. As I said in my opening remarks, the Coast Guard will retain and increase our capacity to monitor vessels trafficking through the proposed moratorium zone. If there is a particular issue that we see through our MCTS centres, then we will immediately notify Transport Canada, who will continue with their responsibility in their enforcement role.
4 p.m.
Liberal
4 p.m.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to departmental officials for being here, for providing your comments and answering the committee's questions. Congratulations to Mr. Lick, as well.
Just to clarify, to start off with the rationale for the 12,500-tonne limit and ministerial discretion, are those both under the jurisdiction of Transport Canada? Am I correct in assuming that it was Transport Canada that would answer to that, not any of the three departments here?
4 p.m.
Director, Environmental Impacts, CanmetENERGY, Department of Natural Resources
It's not NRCan, no.
4 p.m.
Director General, Operations, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
My belief is that it is Transport Canada.
4 p.m.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Okay, thanks. I just wanted to clarify that.
In terms of the diluted bitumen, we heard the components and the chemical compounds. Do we have cleanup technology on our coasts, on all three coasts, to deal with any kind of spill of this product?
4 p.m.
Manager, Emergencies Science and Technology Section, Department of the Environment
Yes, many of the conventional techniques that are used now would be appropriate for diluted bitumen products as well. The timing of the use of those various response methods may change. With diluted bitumen, you may have a little bit less time to respond with a certain type of response measure.
4 p.m.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
You mean something like that could sink, and we don't have the technology—or do we have the technology to capture it, if it sinks quickly?
