Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in response to a question I had on November 2, 2017, which was the eve of the disastrous Korean-owned Hanjin Seattle spill, which saw 35 shipping containers insulated with styrofoam contaminate the coastline of the west coast of Vancouver Island.
To date, I will note that the government has provided zero funding to clean up the spill, while the community-led initiatives and volunteers sprung into action and continue to donate hard-earned money and clean up the mess that was left on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
I want to thank the groups that led the charge: Ocean Legacy, Pacific Rim chapter of Surfrider, Clayoquot Clean up, the Tla-o-qui-aht, Indigenous Guardians, the leaders in Tofino and Ucluelet, and the Nuu-chah-nulth leaders. They called for support from Ottawa, which did not happen. During the year that we did not get support on the west coast, the government indicated, after a year, that there was a near-complete legislative and regulatory void for coastal debris cleanup, and no dedicated fund.
When this incident took place, I came into the House of Commons, notified the government, and called for support. The government did not provide any support. Early last year, in 2017, the parliamentary secretary of Transport at the time identified that the government's position was it did not feel that ocean plastics and marine debris posed an immediate threat to the environment. We know that is ridiculous.
Through debate, even today, as we debated the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline, it was clear in hearing from members that they do not understand how important the ocean is for us. It is not just about the economy or the environment, or our food security and recreation, because it is all of those to coastal people, but it is our home. It is what connects us. It is our language. It feeds us, and we rely on it every day to sustain our communities and sensitive ecosystems.
During the time that the government has shown no action, I have raised this concern in the House of Commons repeatedly. The response I have been given is that the government has created a world-class oceans protection plan. That is invisible on the ground. We have not had any support. Meanwhile, the government went to the United Nations' first world summit on oceans last June. They signed on to agreements to help tackle ocean plastics. We know with ocean plastics that if we keep going the way we are going, they will outweigh fish by 2050. We recently heard that the government wants to use the G7 to talk about ocean plastics and combatting them.
My question is directly to the Prime Minister, and to the parliamentary secretaries of the environment, fisheries and oceans, and the transport minister. All of them keep touting this world-class oceans protection plan. When it comes to ocean plastics, we have seen nothing. What we would like to see is a national strategy to combat plastic pollution in aquatic environments and creation of a permanent, dedicated, annual fund to help clean up efforts like this in the future.
This was a serious incident that took place, and the Government of Canada was invisible. We expect more. Everyone expects more, and certainly coastal people expect more. I hope the government today will come forward with a solution that it is not going to leave our communities high and dry if an incident like this takes place again. We have seen global trade with Asia growing at a rate of 6% a year over the last two decades, and we have seen no support on the ground for the impact that marine highway is having on our sensitive ecosystems.
I outlined how important the ocean is to us. I hope that the member opposite will share a positive solution moving forward.