Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to Bill C-15, an act to amend the Canada Shipping Act.
The Canada Shipping Act is one of the oldest pieces of legislation still in effect in Canada. It was enacted in 1936 and is the primary legislation governing Canadian ships in Canada's jurisdiction.
With the reorganization of both the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Department of Transport, a reprioritization and a clearer outline of the ministerial responsibilities of both these department is needed.
The merger of the Canadian coast guard with the department of fisheries was completed with responsibility for the coast guard functions being transferred to DFO with the exemption of harbours, ports, ship safety and pilotage and crown corporations.
Transport Canada has the prime responsibility for overseeing the reform of the Canada Shipping Act. However, some of the sections of the act will fall within the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, specifically those related to pleasure craft, search and rescue, receiving, receiver of wrecks and pollution preparedness and response.
The reform that is currently under way will help simplify the regulatory framework and make the shipping act more consistent with current regulatory policies. In the end, reforms should contribute to better economic performance in the marine industry.
The government chose to carry out the reforms in a two-step approach. The first step takes place with Bill C-15. Under Bill C-15 there will be a new general part that will be added to the beginning of the act, followed by a revision of the existing Part I that will deal with ship registration, ownership and mortgages.
Part II of the reforms to the act will review the remaining parts of the shipping act, specifically dealing with the areas of safety, certification and conditions of work, accident investigation, navigation, wrecks and salvage and economic and environmental issues.
It is my understanding that Part II of the reforms is estimated to be ready in early 1999. We anxiously await these reforms and look forward to receiving and debating the issues that emerge at that time.
Bill C-15 will enable Transport Canada to assume complete responsibility for ship registration and related activities. The Minister of Transport will be permitted through the act to appoint a chief registrar who will be responsible for a register of ships. The register will deal with specific information such as the name and description of a Canadian ship, the official number and its registered tonnage, the name and address of its owner and details of all mortgages registered. This gives Transport Canada responsibility for ship registration that is currently performed by Revenue Canada's Customs and Excise.
The legislation will require that every ship that exceeds 15 tonnes gross tonnage, that was owned only by qualified persons and was not registered in a foreign country, would have to be registered. Proposed in this bill for the first time, certain foreign ships will be allowed to register in Canada.
We are in favour of many of the reforms included in the bill. It is important to point out that Bill C-15 was introduced in October 1997. However, it is essentially the same bill as C-73 that was introduced in December 1996 but unfortunately died on the Order Paper when the election was called.
Reforming the outdated shipping act is important and provides significant benefits for Canada such as more employment and business opportunities for Canadians and, above all, a rejuvenated marine infrastructure and a better service for Canadian exporters. This is particularly important as our country is an export-driven economy and we need to ensure that we have cost competitive mechanisms to get our product to market.
We only wish these reforms were of greater priority for the government and were introduced earlier. We are still pleased the bill is here now and that it will be dealt with in committee. We look forward to looking more closely at certain issues and concerns.
Under clauses 35 and 36 of the bill the minister can appoint tonnage measurers to calculate a ship's tonnage. A tonnage measurer may withhold a tonnage certificate until the person requesting it pays the tonnage measurer's fees and travel expenses. The minister may set limits on the fees and expenses charged.
Although tonnage measuring is obviously important, we hope the fees and expenses remain reasonable so we limit possible additional costs being passed on to shippers and we can have cost competitive access to our own markets. This is something to consider and watch for in the future.
The current part I of the Shipping Act will be replaced with a new part I that will modernize the registration of ships. Certificates of registry will have an expiry date. The subject of expiration is understandable in the context of a transitional period, updating the registration of ships under the old act to registration under the new act.
However, section 48 outlines many sweeping changes the governor in council may make. One area of concern under this section is the issuance and renewal of certificates of registry. Although it is important to have updated registration information about all ships, we hope future changes that may be made will not mean more bureaucracy and excessive costs associated with too frequent registration requirements.
Also under the bill the Department of Fisheries and Oceans will be provided with greater authority to regulate pleasure craft. In this regard we are somewhat concerned that the government not go too far and have too much regulation of pleasure craft. If there is a safety risk we are certainly in favour of it. However let us not have regulation for regulation's sake. We would encourage caution here. The parliamentary secretary stated that they plan on making amendments to pleasure craft at the committee level. We are very pleased to hear this.
We are pleased with certain aspects of the legislation. Clauses pertaining to definitions are important. Passenger safety will be enhanced by eliminating the specific reference to owner or charterer in the current definition of passenger, which in the past has possibly permitted some charterers to get around meeting specific safety regulations. Therefore we think this is good.
Another area we believe is good is with respect to small vessels. Presently the legislation deals mostly with large vessels and has not taken into account that small vessels are often built by manufacturers or individuals that may have fallen outside regulations that apply to larger vessels. It is important for these manufacturers to comply with construction and manufacturing standards as manufacturers of larger vessels have to do.
We support the bill. It is long overdue. It is unfortunate the legislation was not passed when it was originally introduced in the previous parliament as Bill C-73. However, it is here now and we support most of it. Certain parts of the bill warrant further analysis at committee. We should look more closely at the area of pleasure craft and how much further regulation is required. The parliamentary secretary referred to the point that they would be making amendments concerning pleasure craft at the committee level. We think this is very good and we are pleased to participate in a constructive fashion at committee.
We look forward to phase two of the reforms that will be implemented in 1999.