Transport Committee on Feb. 26th, 2018

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

I have two things. We asked the Library of Parliament for reporting on vessel registration. They said they couldn't find any record of it, that there was no reporting. That's from our own in-house research station, so the transparency is not there.

To say that this program exploring enhancements to vessel registration is going to sit on the government website is not giving us comfort about actual implementation. Whether it was the Chamber of Shipping, John Weston, Washington state, or multiple local governments, we've heard from countless witnesses who have said that your program won't work without transparency and improvements to vessel registration, so why would this government not take the opportunity to import into its commitments to the country that it will report on the state of vessel registration?

Of course, the housing of vessel registration may well sit within another act, but you're not going to get at abandoned vessels without nailing the registration program, and there is zero downside to including that in this legislation. I would argue that excluding it is going to leave coastal communities not sure of what commitments this government will keep and what transparency there will be beyond the life of this current government.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Hardie.

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

I think that certainly by flagging the fact that a report already does exist, that we now know where to look.... I would like the staff to comment on Ms. Malcolmson's point that our Library of Parliament couldn't find this report. Can you confirm that it does exist? Certainly, if it does, then we do know where to look in the future with respect to the performance of the registration system.

[Ellen Burack]

I can confirm that compliance with marine safety regulations is in the departmental performance report. If the library was looking for something in particular labelled with respect to the pleasure craft licensing system, perhaps that was not found because there is no report that is called that.

I can say that there is extensive public reporting through the departmental performance report going forward on the oceans protection plan. As I mentioned, key parts of the national strategy on abandoned vessels are improvements in particular to the pleasure craft licensing system, which is generally recognized to have some significant deficiencies. Work is actively under way with the provinces and territories to improve that in a very significant way.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Not seeing any further comments or questions, I'll call the vote on NDP-12.

(Amendment negatived: nays, 8; yeas, 1)

(Clause 151 agreed to)

Shall clause 152 carry?

(Clause 152 agreed to)

Ms. Malcolmson.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

This is our final amendment. The west coast local governments, the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities , the City of Victoria, the Islands Trust Council , and the Regional District of Nanaimo all had the same elements in their pieces of legislative change, namely, fixing vessel registration, looking at a vessel registration fee that would owner-finance removal of boats, implementing a vessel turn-in program that would include designation of disposal areas for vessels, implementing recycling facilities, supporting local marine salvage to help dispose of wrecks, and putting all this in a report to Parliament. These are the elements of my legislation that was blocked back in December. However, many of these pieces are embedded in the government's commitment we see in its website. We are moving forward behind the scenes, but not within a legislative framework and not with the accountability that reporting to Parliament would entail.

My argument to fellow committee members reflects the advice we've had for about 15 years of pressure. The reason we have this legislation is that coastal communities on both coasts have been pushing hard and quite rightly identifying big holes in jurisdiction in Canada. In the absence of federal leadership, the burden has fallen disproportionately on coastal communities.

Why not enshrine all of these elements in the legislation? This is a perfect opportunity to do so. In reporting back to constituents five years from now, we could say these are all the measures taken by the government, and this was the experimentation. The proposal from Minister Garneau is entirely consistent with the individual commitments made in the abandoned vessel strategy in the oceans protection plan. With only two more years in this government's term, however, I'm concerned that these commitments will not last beyond the government, as long as they sit only on the website and are not embedded in legislation. For the sake of transparency, accountability, and visibility, when this issue dies away a little bit, we will still want to have the government's commitments locked in and to have action implementation. As we see in Washington state, Oregon, and Florida, as well as in Norway and other countries, it is possible within the frame of Parliament to revisit, re-evaluate, and make amendments to regulations and legislation as time goes on. We'll all end up better off if we lock those commitments into the bill.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Ms. Jordan.

[Bernadette Jordan, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

First, I have a number of concerns with this amendment, specifically the calling for a national strategy on abandoned and wrecked vessels, which already exists. It's already encompassed in the oceans protection plan. It's a $1.5-billion plan. If we do a national strategy with this amendment, we're being redundant. We already have a national strategy.

Second, with regard to fees, fee structures are difficult and complex issues, but I agree with you that we need to do something with the fees and where they go and whether a vessel turn-in program is the right way to go. I think, however, that this would be better addressed in regulations and not legislation.

Third, I'm concerned about the implementation for a turn-in and recycling program for the end of life of vessels. The provinces and territories have jurisdiction over waste and land management and I don't think it would be appropriate for the federal government to legislate a program for disposal without having good stakeholder consultations with the provinces and territories to make sure we're all on the same page.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Fraser.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I accept the criticisms of the the proposed amendment that my colleague Ms. Jordan just put forward. I wanted to take this opportunity, which is my last time to speak on this motion, to thank a few people: Mr. Weston who testified before us made this an issue; Ms. Malcolmson, the member from Nanaimo-Ladysmith, has been a great advocate for abandoned vessels and brought witnesses who showed us pictures of the impact on the west coast; and of course I would be remiss if I didn't thank my colleague Bernadette Jordan for her tremendous effort on this file. This is not something I campaigned on in the last election, despite its being an important issue for me.

Bernadette, I say in all sincerity, I do not think this would be happening without your effort, and I'd like to thank the minister for piggybacking on the heavy lifting you've done. Thank you for protecting our coastal communities.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you.

Ms. Malcolmson.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

I'll just say, as a final word, a quote from the minister's mandate letter.

As Minister, you will be held accountable for our commitment to bring a different style of leadership to government. This will include: close collaboration with your colleagues; meaningful engagement with Opposition Members of Parliament, Parliamentary Committees and the public service;

Then on transparency:

We have also committed to set a higher bar for openness and transparency in government. It is time to shine more light on government to ensure it remains focused on the people it serves.

On the national strategy, if the government is going to do it, then why not say in legislation we are going to do it and impose on the government a requirement to report back to the people in coastal communities after the fact? You can't have it both ways. You can't campaign and keep doing press releases and re-update your website, but say no to making that same commitment. It is not duplicative. It's enshrining for transparency and accountability something that will last beyond this term of Parliament and beyond any of our service.

Other governments around the world have done it, and Canada would be stepping up into the modern marine age if you were to vote yes to this final amendment I've proposed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Ms. Malcolmson.

We'll call for a recorded vote on amendment NDP-13.

(Amendment negatived: nays 5; yeas 4 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clauses 153 and 154 agreed to)

All right, shall schedules 1 and 2 carry?

(Schedules 1 and 2 agreed to)

Shall clause 1 carry, which is the short title?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Shall the bill as amended carry?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Shall I report the bill to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Shall the committee order a reprint of the bill?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Good. That's fabulous work, folks. With the help of everybody, we've got through a wonderful piece of legislation that affects an awful lot of people.

Mr. Hoback.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

With regard to the motion I withdrew, I just want some clarification. We are going to report that to the House.

When would you like a witness list created and given to the clerk? Could I have some logistics around that? If you want to decide that on Wednesday, that's fine.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I would think the clerk will put out a notice fairly quickly. We come back on the 19th. It will be probably by the 14th.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Do you need a motion on that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

No, you withdrew your amendments on the condition that we were going to do a report on March 19 and invite the appropriate officials to the table, and with the help of the analysts, we'll do a report on that war graves issue as we move forward.