Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the minister's representative, the parliamentary secretary, echoing back our shared commitment to find a solution to this, but I am very concerned that the headline is the prohibition of vessel abandonment.
Such laws exist already, and the government should be enforcing them. Owners are already responsible and liable. Boat owners can already be taken to court to remove a vessel. We have examples right now, such as the MV Farley Mowat in Shelburne. The feds went to court to force the owner to pay fines, and to be arrested or imprisoned. That is happening already. The problem is that we cannot fine an owner who himself is derelict, unable to pay. Part of the problem is the great financial insecurity of people who just cannot keep up their vessels anymore.
Also, we cannot fine an owner that we cannot find. Vessel registration is a mess. I really want to have the government's assurance that this is a priority, that it will fix vessel registration, and make every owner pay into a fund that would then be available to deal with vessels on an emergency basis so that it is not paid on the backs of taxpayers.