Fisheries committee  There are a couple of things on this one. First, there is a risk of environmental impact. That is certainly the case. The information that we have been given by Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the science on the chemicals, is that they will dissolve and be bioremediated very quickly in salt water.

Fisheries committee  Mathematically, about 50% of the [Technical difficulty—Editor] accounted for. Whether or not they're still in the sea containers remains to be seen, but as I said, the science tells us that these chemicals, while they are dangerous goods, they also dissolve rapidly in water, and the harmful environmental effects are mitigated and diminish rapidly once they are dissolved.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair, I won't be able to answer the entire question because part of it is outside the purview of the Coast Guard. The increase in weather [Technical difficulty—Editor] of Environment and Climate Change Canada, but I will try to address the question about how the Zim Kingston ended up in the teeth of a gale, so to speak.

Fisheries committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair. Committee members, thank you very much for the opportunity to participate in your study on marine cargo container spills this morning. To open, I would like to provide a brief overview of the current state of play related to marine cargo loss in Canada, touching in particular on the recent case of the Zim Kingston.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for that question. The Coast Guard certainly is involved in responding to reports of mariners who have COVID-like symptoms. It hasn't happened yet, as far as I'm aware, in the fishing context, although it has happened in the commercial shipping context. What happens is that our marine communications and traffic services maintain radio communication with the shipmaster.

Fisheries committee  No, sir, not that I'm aware of. On the west coast, in the lead-up to the May long weekend, we were particularly concerned about the fine weather encouraging people to take to the water for recreational purposes, and that also included significant concern about seasonal travellers from the United States who tend to take that waterway up toward Alaska for the summer.

Fisheries committee  Yes, sir, there would be.

Fisheries committee  We started developing the guidance in February as we saw COVID coming towards us. After mid-March, when the lockdown happened, we started to publish the guidance on our Intranet page, which is internal to the Coast Guard and DFO, but in the context of many of our crew members being off cycle, not having access to the departmental system, we published it on the Internet.

Fisheries committee  We've worked extensively with the Public Health Agency of Canada, Transport Canada and Health Canada. We've worked closely with Public Safety Canada through the government operations centre there, because they are coordinating a lot of the federal response. We sought input from our federal partners.

Fisheries committee  I'm very happy to advise that absolutely we have detailed, extensive guidance for our personnel on all vessels and in shore bases and installations. There are detailed screening procedures. Either a rescue specialist or a delegate from the ship's commanding officer will screen everybody coming on board our ships and will ask folks who are exhibiting symptoms of COVID to not enter the ship or the facility and to go and get tested.