When I look at subsection 163(2) of the Canada Shipping Act—and this came from a conversation with Captain Bender—there is a provision that allows the minister to designate vessels as having heritage status. The problem with this is that, federally, there is no actual protection for heritage status. It's not a legal protection; it's a legal designation. According to Parks Canada's own website, it's a ceremonial thing. It provides either a significance.... It's a way of honouring either a sunken wreck or, as you were talking about, the ships that were discovered up in the Arctic, for example, things like that, as part of our history. What makes this different, particularly with ocean war graves, is that obviously we're talking about tombs. We're talking about remains still being on board.
The Canada Shipping Act is one of the primary vehicles under which that kind of protection could be granted now. It might be possible to amend the Canada Shipping Act to insert different punishments or protections under subsection 163(2) from what exist now. I'll be very honest. I don't profess to be an expert on a lot of this. What we saw, and from what Captain Bender had researched, was that there does exist a gap.
What I had thought to propose, in terms of this bill and an issue dealing with the Canada Shipping Act, was that if there were any way we could get protections through Parliament sooner, rather than drafting a whole new bill, etc., perhaps this could be the vehicle to do it. I'll fully admit, in our position, there might be a better vehicle, but echoing what I'm sure the admiral has said, there's a real sense of urgency. Perhaps we can use it collectively, as a Parliament, both sides asking, “What avenues exist?” and “How quickly can we bring in protection?”