Transport committee  It would be, but our biggest problem for sure is the two large ones that came up.

Transport committee  For us it's the wharf owner that would be the issue. All the ships that have come up, they've brought up. In the Cormorant's case they sold it. Now the ownership is being disputed. The person who the wharf owner says he sold it to is saying, “I didn't buy that boat.” They're dealing with that in provincial court.

Transport committee  Taxation would probably be one, but again, I think that's a provincial matter. For us, at the docks that we own, you can't park your vessel overnight for more than a certain number of days without our permission. We don't have that kind of jurisdiction.... It would be nice—and maybe it's just a dream—for municipalities, when there's a boat over a certain size that would affect us, to have the right to refuse it up the waterway.

Transport committee  For Bridgewater, the two big ones were the Fraser and, currently, the Cormorant. Behind that sit very large fishing trawlers, still quite large, but under the 300-gross-tonnage limit.

Transport committee  In Bridgewater, it's not so much the vessel—

Transport committee  I have just one quick thing, and maybe this is a provincial issue. As a town, we're not able to tax a public wharf that's owned by a private individual. Not only do we have to deal with these ships, but we get zero revenue that we could build into a fund to deal with them. That's another issue, but I think that's probably a provincial issue..

Transport committee  Yes. I think that does make sense. It goes back to my original point about having a business case in order to bring the ship up. If you're going to divest yourself of a ship, as a government, you should make sure that the person who takes on that responsibility can.

Transport committee  Correct me if I'm wrong, but does that only apply to vessels at a public wharf, not a privately owned wharf?

Transport committee  You're absolutely correct. We don't have the financial capacity to deal with these ships. In my opening remarks, you heard me say that just with the Cormorant listing to the side—it didn't even sink to the bottom—it took over $1 million that had to come from the federal government.

Transport committee  Fifteen million dollars. We're pretty lean. We can't absorb this if it's an emergency. If we had to bear the cost of removing these ships or even bringing one back up to the surface, we couldn't do it.

Transport committee  I don't know. I understand where Shelburne was coming from in their answer, in response to my answer about punishing the wharf owner. I was specifically talking about how in this case, our case, it's a privately owned wharf. I wouldn't want Shelburne to have to bear that. There are things in the bill that do deal with this, such as not allowing a vessel to remain in the same place for 60 days.

Transport committee  Sure. The expression may not be appropriate to say, but putting lipstick on a pig is kind of what we're doing here. We're beautifying our waterfront, yet sitting there is this giant eyesore. It's difficult to attract tourism. The things that leak out of these ships are a constant concern, as you've seen in some of the pictures that were scrolling—the booms that have to go around these boats because they continue to leak and leach their various fuels and whatever else is in these ships, for example, asbestos.

Transport committee  Again, the assessments are done by people from the property value assessment services from the province, who also look at the surroundings. In the background to all the homes on the waterway are these ships in this wharf, which keeps bringing these ships up. The owners constantly appeal their assessments and they win on appeal because it's affecting their property.

Transport committee  Thank you. My community doesn't really have any concerns, because we see this as a huge step forward from what we have in place now. I have spoken to my member of Parliament to express our support. We've seen action already, so I sense that this legislation will only see more action in terms of removing the derelict vessels.

Transport committee  Thank you.