Mr. Speaker, I thank the government House leader for his intervention. Quite frankly, I am used to the accusations, innuendoes and unproven circumstances from the hon. member for Charlotte so it does not really trouble me very much.
In fact the hon. member is quite confused because this bill and its contents have nothing at all to do with the discussions in the House yesterday on a completely different bill and a completely different issue. As usual, the hon. member for Charlotte is confused and misled.
The convention I speak of also provides special provisions for the liability of shipowners to their passengers. This will be a new feature in our legislation which will apply to passenger vessels, ferries, tour boats and other vessels where passengers are carried on a ship under a contract of passenger carriage.
Concerns were raised in the last Parliament that such a provision might not cover all passengers travelling by ship in Canada, specifically those carried without a contract of carriage. In response to these concerns the Standing Committee on Transport proposed an amendment to Bill C-58 to ensure “persons other than crew carried on a ship without a contract of carriage” will benefit from the same regime of liability. This is of particular importance where passenger ships are hired by individuals or organizations for special occasion use by their clients, guests or employees, or where carriage of passengers by water is provided as part of land tour or hotel packages.
Bill S-4 also modifies some provisions of the convention in order to better meet Canadian requirements, in particular in respect of the application to all ships and the application to any person in possession of a ship. These modifications have been made in conjunction with the definition of shipowner to ensure that the new regime will continue to apply to all vessels, seagoing or not, and also to people who have possession of a ship, for example ship repairers.
The Canada Shipping Act currently establishes limitation of liability for owners of docks, canals and ports. This regime is strictly domestic in nature and provides a reciprocal balance to the regime applicable to shipowners in the sense that both shipowners and dock owners can limit their liability against each other.
This regime has been maintained in Bill S-4 with the following amendments. The limits of liability have been increased. The right to limit liability has been extended to servants and agents of the owners of docks, canals and ports in order to achieve uniformity with a similar provision respecting the agents and servants of shipowners. We have removed any reference to the nationality of the largest ship for the calculation of the limit of liability to achieve a more flexible application of this provision which currently uses for this calculation the largest British ship in the area of the accident.
Before I turn to the second issue presented in the bill, the regime of liability and compensation for oil pollution damage, I will address the economic implications of the amendments to the Canada Shipping Act in respect of the global limitation of liability. In respect of commercial vessel owners, those who are insured in mutual protection and indemnity associations, generally known as P and I clubs, will not likely see any substantive change in their insurance rates since the coverage already provided by these associations is unlimited.
Some commercial ship owners who are not currently insured in the P and I clubs may experience an upfront increase in insurance cost as a result of this revision of limits proposed in Bill S-4. In most cases the actual impact will depend on actual claims experienced under the new limitation regime.
The same applies to pleasure vessel owners. The vast majority of them are already insured to the level of liability proposed in this revision, while others will have to seek additional insurance to be fully protected against the new limits.
The adjustment that is likely to occur in the pleasure vessel insurance market under the new regime is not expected to raise the cost of pleasure vessel insurance to a level that would approach the level of other types of personal insurance, especially auto insurance. Most pleasure vessel owners already carry a liability insurance in the range of $1 million so they should not expect any increase in their cost of insurance as a result of this new legislation.
The second issue in Bill S-4 is the revision of the existing regime of liability and compensation for oil pollution damage. This regime was last revisited in 1989 when Canada implemented and acceded to the 1969 international convention on civil liability for oil pollution damage and the 1971 international fund convention. The 1969 convention established the liability of owners of laden tankers for oil pollution damage while the 1971 fund convention provided complementary compensation to the extent that protection under the 1969 convention was inadequate.
In addition to participating in the international oil pollution compensation fund, Canada has its own domestic compensation fund called the ship source oil pollution fund.
This is a fund of first resort for all claimants for oil pollution damage in Canada and in waters under Canadian jurisdiction. Canadian contributions to the international fund are paid from the ship source oil pollution fund.
The 1969 and 1971 conventions were updated in 1992 when protocols were adopted under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization. Under the 1992 protocols, the amount of compensation available for pollution damage caused by oil tankers was increased from $120 million per incident to approximately $270 million.
A number of other important changes were made in the 1992 protocols to improve the original conventions. Shipowners are now liable for the cost of reasonable measures of reinstatement where oil pollution from a ship results in damage to the environment.
The geographic scope of application of the convention will now include the exclusive economic zone of Canada which extends 200 nautical miles from shore. The protocols also extend the convention to claims for preventive measures taken before a spill to prevent or minimize pollution damage.
Finally, this convention now also applies to empty tankers with specific reference to the voyage subsequent to the voyage during which it was carrying oil.
Bill S-4 will implement the provisions of the 1992 protocols, thus increasing the level of compensation available to victims of pollution damage caused by oil tankers in the future.
The proposed legislation will enable Canada to follow many other countries that have terminated their membership with the old regime and moved quickly to the 1992 regime.
Until Canada follows suit, we will continue to be exposed to higher contributions to the international fund due to the reduced membership in the old regime.
I therefore strongly urge this House to consider this important legislation expeditiously. The sooner Canada can accede to the new regime, the better.
I would like to take a moment to discuss the amendments proposed to Bill S-4 by the Senate. These amendments remove from the bill a proposed modification to the definition of pollutant, which raised concerns among the industry representatives who appeared before the standing Senate committee on transport and communications.
This amendment to Bill S-4 will allow more time for discussion between the government and the industry on the definition of pollutant and whether it should be modified in the future.
I am pleased to endorse, on behalf of the government, the amendments made to this bill. I urge others to do so.
In conclusion, the changes I have outlined here for the Canada Shipping Act would not have been possible without the continued support of our stakeholders.
During our consultations, Transport Canada officials have spoken at length with shipowners, passengers, cargo owners, the oil industry, marine insurers and the marine legal community.
I take the opportunity to thank these industry groups for their participation in this reform. Their strong support of this bill has been very gratifying for all those involved.
I know the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport is involved in the study of rail passenger transportation in this country. Due to the importance of moving quickly on this legislation, I would hope that my colleagues and I can move to spend a day on Bill S-4 in committee so that we can deal with it expeditiously partly because also we have dealt with this bill in its old form before the dissolution of the last Parliament.
The industry has indicated to us that it has been there, it has done that, it has talked to the committee and now it wants to move forward with this piece of legislation.
I look forward to my colleagues on both sides of this House coming together and moving quickly with the legislation when it comes before committee.