Transport Committee on Feb. 12th, 2018

[Anna Johnston]

On the issue of cleanup, I am a little bit concerned that the provisions around the minister's responsibilities and authority to require owners to deal with abandoned, etc., vessels seem to go only so far as their removal and not to the cleanup of any environmental costs, not the remediation costs, so I would encourage the committee to think about amending those provisions to include requiring owners of these vessels to ensure the cleanup of environmental damages, and if the owners do not, to then hold them liable for the costs of environmental cleanup as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have 40 seconds left.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

I don't have any further questions.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We will go over to Mr. Hardie for one minute.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

What I've heard is a regime that would make life potentially more difficult and more expensive for people who own boats. You would be asking everybody to contribute to a fund that would be there for scofflaws to take advantage of, particularly when you can't really identify who owns these boats. The problem is that you're dealing with a hundred or so years of history, with a boat being abandoned for every mile of shoreline in British Columbia.

The other thing—and it happens in the auto insurance industry, where I have had some experience—is that the tougher the sanctions, the more people will try to get around them and fight them. Perhaps what we're thinking of here, and what we've heard from you, Ms. Johnston, especially, is that you're creating a situation that will have unintended consequences simply because people will try even harder to abandon their boats under cover of darkness, rather than face the kinds of sanctions you're thinking of.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Would someone like to give a short response?

[Anna Johnston]

I think the kinds of prohibitions and the penalties that are set out in this legislation ought to go hand in hand with the kinds of recommendations that Ms. Malcolmson is making in regard to encouraging and facilitating vessel turn-in and recycling. This is the stick, and then outside of the legislative scheme, through programs, you have the carrot. With that two-handed approach, I think you would be able to better deal with this issue without having the clandestine sinking of vessels overnight.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much to all our witnesses. It was very informative.

For the information of committee, any amendments that anyone is considering for Bill C-64 should be in by February 22. We have one more meeting on Wednesday on Bill C-64, and when we come back after the constituency week, we will be dealing with it on Monday, February 26.

Thank you all very much. The meeting is adjourned.