Mr. Speaker, as the House is aware, ocean plastics are a mounting global concern. Each year more than 20 million tonnes of debris are entering the world's oceans. Around the world plastic is having a devastating impact on marine environments, ecosystems and human health. If left unchecked, it is predicted that by 2050 the mass of plastic in our oceans will soon outweigh that of fish.
Single-use plastics are a part of everyday life. Around 80% of all plastics in the ocean come from land-based sources. Ninety-five per cent of single-use plastics, such as coffee lids, plastic bags and plastic drinking straws, are used once and discarded.
Marine plastic debris is a huge growing threat to our oceans, marine life and human health. Ocean plastics impact the ocean and coastal ecological web, threatening our fisheries and the livelihood of over 72,000 Canadians who make their living from fishing and fishing-related activities, many of whom live in my riding. Plastics are even found in the flesh of supermarket seafood and in sea salt, affecting the safety of our food security, including our salmon and our shellfish. In fact, every piece of shellfish right now in Baynes Sound, which is a producer of 40% of the shellfish in British Columbia, has a piece of microplastic in it.
Even though Canada has the world's longest coastline, our country has no national policy to prevent plastic from entering our waters and no mechanisms to clean up the pollution that is already there.
There is a complete regulatory and legislative void at the federal level to address plastic pollution. We are falling behind our global neighbours. Over 40 countries, including four of the G7, France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom, all of whom we know the Minister of Environment and Climate Change will be meeting this week in Halifax to talk about the state of our oceans and plastic, are taking concrete steps to address plastic waste and plastic pollution. Even countries like Kenya, China and Rwanda have all taken action to regulate single-use plastics. Cities like Seattle, Vancouver and San Francisco that requires restaurants to use biodegradable plastic straws all have policies to regulate single-use plastics. Communities on the west coast are leading the fight against ocean plastics. Cumberland, Qualicum Beach, Tofino and Victoria are all taking action.
Canadians are showing a huge concern over ocean plastics. A petition recently created by SumOfUs and the Ocean Legacy Foundation garnered over 100,000 signatures in just over two weeks. Just on Friday at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, almost unanimously the cities and towns of British Columbia voted in support of my Motion No. 151 to create a national strategy to tackle ocean plastics.
Thirty-five per cent of Canadians have identified this issue as very important. Over 50% think it is an important issue. Eighty-seven per cent of Canadians think it is somewhat important.
I hope the government will start to pay attention. Currently, the government does not have any plan in place. It has a volunteer charter and that is not good enough for Canadians. They expect more. They expect us to fall in line with the G7 nations that are taking action and the communities in our country that are taking leadership on this issue. Ninety-five per cent of municipalities in Canada voted at the FCM to call on the Government of Canada to take action on ocean plastics.
I would appreciate it if the government could respond with a real commitment, not more voluntary commitments, but something concrete that would support what Canadians wish, and that is a government that is going to help prevent plastics from entering out waterways.