Fisheries committee  Yes. I can answer that question. Yes, there is a statute of limitation. As I indicated earlier, it's a total of six years from the time of the incident. When the container went overboard, there are essentially six years for the liability of the shipowner.

Fisheries committee  As I mentioned earlier, under the Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act and the Marine Liability Act, Canada has implemented international conventions that make the shipowner strictly liable. This means you don't need to prove negligence on the part of the shipowner. They are automatically liable for the cost of responding to a spill or an incident.

Fisheries committee  I can answer that question. Canada in 2018 ratified an international convention on liability and compensation for hazardous and noxious substances. This covers thousands and thousands of different kinds of dangerous goods that are transported by ships. That convention is not yet in force internationally.

Fisheries committee  Yes. Mr. Chair, the polluter, which in this case is the owner of the ship, is liable under two acts: the Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act, for the cost of locating, marking or removing a wreck, which can include the containers even if the ship itself has not become a wreck; and the Marine Liability Act, under which the owners of the ship are liable for losses or damage caused by pollution from the ship with regard to response measures or preventive measures to address a threat of pollution.

Fisheries committee  With regard to containers, if they've been identified as a hazard, whether that be to navigation or to the marine environment, yes the shipowner is liable. There is a time limit in terms of their liability, which is either three years from the time the debris or the container has been determined to be a hazard, or six years from the date that the container went overboard.