Mr. Speaker, in the spring I brought up the issue of a sunken boat that is off the northeast coast of my riding. It is in Notre Dame Bay. It is off Change Islands, and it is called the Manolis L. It is primarily a paper carrier boat, and it went from the Port of Botwood to the open ocean and on to the high seas, and from there into the European markets.
The problem is that it sank around the mid-eighties. It hit a rock just off Change Islands. It was on there for a few days, and then it slowly slipped into the sea. It sits at about a hundred metres or so under the water. That was quite some time ago, as I said it was the mid-eighties. The problem now is that we are seeing oil washing up on the shoreline of Change Islands, Fogo Island, New World Island, and Twillingate Island as well, and that has caused quite a reaction among the local politicians and the citizens of the area.
Recently, the bird hunting season started and many of the hunters noticed that oiled birds were showing up. It was quite prevalent. I had public hearings in the riding in four different places, to ascertain how bad this is.
People said they could smell the oil before they could see it. They could see the sludge washing up on the shoreline; the birds were covered in it. We are just about to get into the sealing season and then the fishing season, which could cause many headaches, as this will get involved in the ecosystem. This is a grave situation.
I have brought up the question, but not in the context of what is now being done. Right now work is being done by the Canadian Coast Guard to provide band-aid solutions for the hull that has split open near the bow. They have created what they call a cofferdam. It is like a funnel that is turned upside down. It is put on the boat, and when the cofferdam fills up with oil it is extracted from that. However, it is not a long-term solution, and that is the sentiment there. The long-term solution that people are looking for goes to the Department of the Environment spearheading this thing. I had a conversation with the former minister of the environment in the spring, who said they were monitoring the situation and that something would happen, hopefully soon, at Treasury Board, to make this long-term solution come to fruition.
What bothers me is that it is has been handled mostly by the Department of Fisheries, which is fine, if I were asking about short-term measures. However, it is the long-term solution that the people of my riding are looking at. I should not say just my riding either; I should say the entire province, if not the entire eastern coastline of this country.
My question is, what is the long-term solution that is being offered beyond what is going on? We have one cofferdam. It was moved because it was damaged. It was put back. A new one was built as a temporary measure. Hopefully, over the next little while we can get a clearer picture.
If we want to permanently take the oil out of the boat, the capacity to do that belongs to several companies. It is a private sector endeavour. By way of example, there was a boat sunken off the British Columbia coastline called the M.G. Zalinski, and recently there was an operation to extract the oil from that boat. It was not like the Irving Whale in Prince Edward Island. They did what is called a hot tap. The oil is heated up within the boat and withdrawn, but it is a big operation. A Dutch company did it, and now tenders have to be issued. We have a short window because of the weather. I am fearful of what is about to happen. Is there a long-term solution?