Mr. Speaker, I am here again tonight to once again remind the House and, of course, the Liberal government about a massive gap in our emergency preparedness framework: the lack of a standing federal plan to prevent, prepare for and actively respond to marine debris spills.
To begin, I want to recognize some of the environmental champions who have been calling attention to the urgency of this issue: Lilly Woodbury from Surfrider Pacific Rim; Karla Robison, who helped deal with the tsunami fallout from the Japanese earthquake at Fukushima; Josh Charleson and Josh Temple, both from Coastal Restoration Society; and organizations like Ocean Legacy and Living Oceans. These people and groups have been doing the work on the ground in coastal communities. They have been raising the alarm for years, but the government still has not addressed the gaps. It is time the Liberal government listened and actually took action.
In 2016, the Hanjin Seattle lost 35 shipping containers just off the coast of Tofino, spreading millions of pieces of damaging styrofoam and plastic across the beaches. In 2021, even worse, the ZIM Kingston lost 109 shipping containers in a spill just south of Ucluelet, in the Strait of Juan de Fuca off Victoria, dumping toxic chemicals, toys, household appliances and other plastic items off our coast. Those are going to appear and resurface for the next 100 years and beyond. Last November, near Bella Bella, a freighter carrying a full load took on water. If not for the quick response of the Heiltsuk nation, it might have caused a devastating marine spill with reverberating effects on the environment and nearby communities.
Each time, it was not the federal government taking the first response and leading the cleanup. It was municipalities, volunteers and, again, often first nations and indigenous communities. While the work they do is incredible, they can only respond rather than act to prevent the worst effects of marine debris spills, straining limited resources in this process.
That is why, in 2022, the fisheries and oceans committee called for the government to step up with regulations against expanded polystyrene foam in packaging, a stronger polluter pays liability model and a coordinated cleanup plan involving all stakeholders, especially first nations. That is also why the Transportation Safety Board reported in 2024 that Canada is not properly prepared for marine emergencies, including marine debris spills, and advised that a well-resourced response plan will protect marine ecosystems and save lives.
That is exactly why I am here. It has been over a year since that report came out and four years since the committee report, and there has been nothing from the government. Transport Canada committed to act on these recommendations, yet in all that time, there has been no concrete action, no improved liability framework and no standing response plan. It has been pure inaction, plain and simple.
However, there is a clear path forward here. Canada has standing oil spill response teams at the dock, ready to move. I want to thank them for their deeply valuable work. With new equipment, training and capacity, these crews could actually step in and also respond to marine cargo spills as well, giving much-needed support to existing cleanup efforts. A small ecosystem service fee could be applied to each container coming to port, which could help fund critical response capacity while keeping the financial onus on transnational shipping corporations that are doing business, not on everyday Canadians. A polluter pays model, as with oil spills, could apply here.
Again I will remind the government that the time to act is now. We learned on Monday that cargo volumes at the Port of Vancouver rose to a record high of 170 million tonnes in 2025. More traffic, alongside increasingly dangerous navigating conditions due to climate change, mean that spills will only become more common and more devastating without a real plan.
Let us not ask coastal communities to wait for the next disaster. I ask the House to please pass my bill to establish a national strategy on shipping container spills, build out rapid response capacity with an ecosystem service fee, and take proactive steps to protect our coasts.