Transport committee  May I respond?

Transport committee  If I've understood correctly, what is effectively being asked is whether the legislation can be amended so as to allow the state to become involved in a civil dispute and to assist one of the parties to that civil dispute. I think that's basically what was being asked by way of i

Transport committee  Loading goods on board the ship is part of the ship's operation, absolutely. The provision even goes on and specifically says, “without restricting the generality of the foregoing, stevedoring and lighterage”.

Transport committee  Yes, that's what it is. It is stevedoring services that are being supplied to the ship—but under a contract with the shipper as opposed to the owner of the ship. It can be done either way. It usually depends on the nature of the sale agreement or the charter agreement.

Transport committee  That was our concern. When you read section 139, taken by itself, it doesn't address this contractual requirement at all. It may be thought of as not being required anymore.

Transport committee  That is what I did in the supplementary submissions on page 2.

Transport committee  I'm sure.

Transport committee  That's another way of minimizing the impact of it. The concept of gross negligence is one that's more prevalent, I think, under civil law than under common law. We would certainly prefer to see something like what we've suggested: a minimum requirement in terms of due diligence

Transport committee  Well, no.

Transport committee  Gross negligence isn't really dealt with very often under maritime law at all. It's reasonably well known what these other concepts we've put in there are and what they will mean. They will put some onus on the ship owner to ensure basic levels of safety, but on the other hand, t

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  We're talking about adventure tourism. I suggested that adventure tourism operators should also be required to exercise due diligence to ensure the seaworthiness of their vessels at the beginning of the voyage and the competency of their masters and crews. But we didn't actually

Transport committee  Absolutely. We do it all the time.

Transport committee  Well, those are the kinds of problems courts deal with. They will certainly have an easier time dealing with it than if it's not qualified at all. That's the problem.

Transport committee  I don't know that the number of people is the answer. I didn't mean by my examples to suggest that it was mostly large vessels I was talking about, because it's not just large vessels I'm talking about; it's vessels of all sizes. Frankly, I don't think it should matter whether yo