It was a beautiful day to be on the water but the group of people taking a boat ride around Deep Bay last Wednesday, July 11, wasn't out to enjoy the sunshine. M.P. John Weston, Councillor Alison Morse, Bowen Island Municipal Bylaw officer Bonny Brokenshire and Deep Bay resident Mike Lightbody toured the bay to look at the various boats moored there. Mixed in with the boats owned by Deep Bay residents are abandoned boats, derelict boats that serve as homes as well a couple of sunken vessels.
The group discussed various aspects as well as possible avenues to remedy the situation. Deep Bay, a.k.a. Mannion Bay, is in a unique situation on Bowen Island and Brokenshire stated that about 98 per cent of all abandoned vessels can be found in the area. "They are anchored here because this is geographically the best place for people to pull up an anchor. It's also close to amenities because it's walking distance to Snug Cove," she said.
Weston interjected that he did not understand why amenities would come into play when someone decided to abandon a boat.
Lightbody believes that often the intent is not to give up the vessel. "I believe that there usually is a sense of ownership as well as pride," he explained. "But either the funds get low or the ability to find a time to get to your boat and deal with it isn't there." But he believes that the owners of the vessels also understand that there are no consequences to leaving the boat in the bay. "They know there's no way to make a phone call and have someone take your boat away as it's your responsibility and the bigger the boat, the bigger the problem," he says, adding that he is worried that this has been a growing trend for people who no longer want their boats.
Brokenshire explained that there are two separate issues at play. "We've got the derelict vessels with the live-aboards and then we've got the abandoned vessels," she said. "The abandoned vessels present more of an environmental hazard, especially when they go down in storms. Even though the bay looks calm and protected right now, the current is amazing and in the winter we have very strong winds." It has happened repeatedly that boats sink or get washed onto the shore, according to Morse.
Lightbody added that there have been examples where the boats' moorage broke and they have ended up on shore or in the water. Brokenshire said that boats are frequently lost to winter storms. "There were three [more abandoned vessels]," she said. "Two sank one got righted and pushed back out. Two of them actually spilled all the contents."
Brokenshire puts the number of abandoned vessels to between five and seven and Cpl. Nancy Joyce of the Bowen Island RCMP, who joined the group on the beach, reported that the count of live-aboards comes to five. "We checked all the boats in April and found where people live aboard," she said, explaining that live-aboards are boats that are more or less stationary. "The boats don't move and people row back and forth from the shore to their boats."
The situation has escalated in the last few years, according to Lightbody. "Twenty years ago, to my recollection, there was no issue, 10 years ago, there might have been one or two boats," he said. "It was just in the last three or four years that this has taken hold. You get a couple of people who are very visible and they live on their boats and that gives others an indication that this is accepted."
Another issue that was mentioned was the effect on water quality. Morse said, "There are new sewage discharge regulations that came in. I'm quite sure that none of those boats have holding tanks or get hauled to the [Union Steamship Company Marina's] pump-out station."
"We do marine water testing once a week and we now use a new lab that does more sophisticated testing for fecal coliform," Brokenshire said. "The results are much higher than in the last few years." Brokenshire attributes that, in part, to better testing methods and speculates that the results for the last five years may have not been accurate. The current fecal coliform levels in Deep Bay are very high, above Health Canada standards. But Brokenshire adds that the full environmental impact is not known as the municipality has never done sediment testing and the geese population also contributes to the problem.
Cpl. Joyce mentioned the example of the large landing barge. "We know that the individual who owns it is under house arrest in Port Alberni right now and is probably going to be extradited," she said. Weston suggested to find a way to deal with the barge before the owner leaves the jurisdiction.
Morse said that she has been through a similar process when she was an Islands Trust trustee. "I was on the Islands Trust council when we dealt with the barge at Ganges. We got a court injunction that probably cost $20,000 to $30,000 in legal fees," she recalled. "We got an injunction but the owner wasn't going to move it. It was going to be another $10,000 for the Trust to get the barge removed because no one wanted to take it. The owner couldn't do anything with it as he didn't have the money."
Morse added that the barge in Ganges wasn't derelict, it even had a house on it but it was still difficult to find someone to take it over.
Weston compared the situation in Deep Bay to his experience as an international lawyer. "Every case had more than one country and more than one type of law involved," he said. "This is analogous in that you have different levels of government and different parties. There might not be one remedy but several remedies." Weston added that there are a number of different situations where the minister of transport can intervene in dealing with abandoned vessels but they apply to narrowly constrained circumstances. "There is not a huge broad window but there are a couple of windows that are worth exploring and I would try and be categorical in explaining each situation," he said. "There are about 12 vessels here. We can divide them into two groups and then we say we know the owners of this one and this one but don't know the owners of that one. This guys is on his way to another country, so there is some urgency."
The next step, for Weston, is to get provincial and municipal representatives at the table together with neighbourhood groups and parties with a commercial interest and he offered to be there personally if possible.
"What often dooms that type of endeavour is that people get paralyzed because there are different types of jurisdictions involved. They throw up their hands and say, 'I don't know where to go,' and then they stop," Weston said. "We have to persist and open that door. If the door isn't there to be opened, then try and change the law and the policy."
Morse added that the issue is not unique but one that gulf islands up and down the coast are grappling with. She also said that some of the boats may have arrived in Deep Bay after False Creek dealt with abandoned and derelict vessels.
Brokenshire sees what happened in False Creek as a good example as there was an extensive public process that addressed environmental, economic and social components. "They also created low income housing as the issue of live-aboards is closely linked to affordable housing, and homelessness" she said. Brokenshire added that the people who lived on boats in False Creek were also part of the process.
Weston said that in addition to formal solutions, some things could be dealt with on a more informal level, especially when it comes to live-aboards. "You can get to know the person and find out the need. If you find a way to satisfy the need, that may well entice the person to go elsewhere," he said.
