Sea to Sky MP John Weston was the only Conservative MP in Ottawa to vote in favour of a private members bill proposed by Nanaimo-Cowichan MP Jean Crowder that aimed to regulate the removal, disposition and destruction of abandoned and wrecked vessels. With the support of only one Conservative MP, the bill did not pass, however, Weston says that he intends to move forward on an alternative approach.
“I wanted to give Jean Crowder credit for raising the profile of this issue in Ottawa,” says Weston. “I voted in favour of her bill, but was concerned that it would impose a mandate on the Coast Guard that would be required to move all vessels without limitation. When it comes to moving and disposing of vessels, there are significant liabilities, clean-up concerns and costs associated with that.”
Weston says that he is working on a bill that would ammend both the Criminal Code and the Shipping Act, and impose jail time for people who abandon vessels.
“People in Mannion Bay want a level of accountability that currently does not exist,” says Weston. “Of course, we will have to work to clarify definitions and there is a clear distinction between someone who acquires a boat and realizes he or she doesn’t have the resources to take care of it, and someone who thinks they can make a profit off a boat, then dumps it. There’s one individual in Squamish, for example, who has abandoned four vessels. And I hear from people, that it is just criminal and something needs to be done.”
He adds that this measure is just “part of the solution” and other measures would follow.
In February, Bowen Island’s Municipal Council passed a resolution to convey its support for Crowder’s bill to the Minister of Transportation.
Councillor Sue Ellen Fast says that she supported this measure because it created a situation in which the municipality would no longer be forced to take on the De facto responsibility of cleaning up wrecks.
“Crowder’s bill was all about making the Coast Guard the reciever of wrecks, and it would have given them the power to alert the vessel’s owner before it became a hazard,” says Fast. “Without anyone taking on that responsibility, the Municipality ends up dealing with everything from docks, mooring buoys and vessels that wash up on our beaches.”
She says that she would like to see legislation that is fair and workable at a small scale level, and that ensures safe and clean beaches and shorelines.
“But I’m just not sure criminalization is the answer,” says Fast. “At least not with the kind of issues we’re dealing with here on Bowen.”
Councillor Alison Morse says she wants to know where the money will come from to enforce criminal charges on people who abandon boats, and whether this proposal will find any money to deal with the existing wrecks that end up landing on local beaches.
