Derelict vessels spark complaint
A New Democrat member of Parliament from British Columbia is criticizing the federal government for failing to act quickly enough to deal with derelict vessels.
The complaints come days after the 27-metre Ana paya, a wooden fishing boat, sank in Ladysmith Harbour on the east coast of Vancouver Island.
Nanaimo-Ladysmith New Democrat MP Sheila Malcolmson spoke during Question Period calling the sinking the “latest example of the Liberals’ failed boat-by-boat approach on abandoned vessels.”
Malcolmson says the boat was identified as a “vessel of concern” by Transport Canada in 2014.
Rod Smith with the Ladysmith Maritime Society says coast guard responders deployed a boom to contain an oil sheen and efforts are underway to remove the 99-year-old vessel from a section of the harbour known as the dogpatch, a home for dozens of derelict vessels.
Malcolmson’s private member’s bill to create a national program to address abandoned vessels reached second reading in the House of Commons Wednesday.
“We need a robust system to deal with these vessels before they harm our environment and community,” she says in a news release.
The New Democrats say the bill is aimed at ending jurisdictional disputes by making the coast guard responsible for directing the removal of abandoned vessels.
It would also fix vessel registration, pilot a vessel turn-in program and create jobs by supporting local marine salvage businesses and vessel recycling, Malcolmson says.
Smith says he’s not optimistic that the decrepit ship, which sits on the harbour bottom with a portion of its mast visible above water, can be lifted in one piece.
“It’s going to be tricky because it is 90 feet and it’s wooden and by all accounts it’s a rotten structure,” he says.
“Normally you might just put a couple of slings under it and pump it out and bring it up but I will be curious to see how they do it. It’s going to be quite a challenge.”