- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Courtenay—Alberni
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 66%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $148,159.67
- Government Page
- May/2/24 8:21:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise and speak on behalf of the people of my riding.
However, it is 8:20 on a Thursday night, and I really do not want to be here, actually. I am here because of the mess that is being created in Union Bay, in my riding. We have an outfit that is ship-breaking and that is not in a proper facility. It does not have a floating dry dock. It is not meeting international standards, because we do not have them in Canada when it comes to ship-breaking. In fact, we could be a leader when it comes to ship-breaking in our country, the proper, responsible ship-breaking, taking apart ships and recycling them properly. We do not do that.
We have a really incredible group of people in our riding who are taking on the role of government, really, because the government is lacking in providing regulations to protect them. The Concerned Citizens of Baynes Sound has been active on this. Marilynne Manning, Ray Rewcastle, Ashlee Gerlock and so many others have been advocating for the government to stop the ship-breaking outfit, because it is a threat to the sensitive ecosystem of Baynes Sound, and also for the Comox Valley Regional District to seek an injunction to stop them. Daniel Arbour, the local area representative, who is phenomenal, has been working with international organizations, trying to bring ideas to the government to fill the regulatory gaps that are there.
The K’ómoks First Nation has asked for this to immediately stop. The Province of B.C. has an abatement order against this company. We also just got a letter from Tla'amin Nation asking that this outfit stop its activity. They are on the other side of the Salish Sea.
There is no support and no social licence in our region for this. The federal government actually named Baynes Sound an ecologically and biologically sensitive ecosystem back in 2012. It cited that it needs protection. This is an absolutely critical area when it comes to jobs; 50% of B.C. shellfish are actually produced there, in this area, in my riding. It is also the last herring spawning fishery on the whole coast of British Columbia. It is absolutely critical that we protect it.
DFO is actually ignoring its own research and recommendations by allowing this hazardous, polluting industry to continue doing what it is doing in Baynes Sound. It is going against its own studies and recommendations. Again, there are no European ship-recycling regulations, something I tabled a motion calling for.
I am going to read a quote from Chek News:
Deep Water Recovery, the company taking apart derelict vessels in Union Bay, has been hit with a pollution abatement order from the province.
The company is illegally allowing toxic effluent to run off into Baynes Sound and the marine environment, B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy has found.
Discharges from the ship-breaking operations are collected in sump pits, which occasionally overflow with untreated effluent. Testing of that runoff confirmed high concentrations of pollutants, including copper, iron, zinc and cadmium.
A letter came out from Nathan Cullen, our former colleague here in the House, who is now B.C. Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, and George Heyman, B.C. Minister of Environment and Climate Strategy. They are calling on the government to take action. They said, “the Province cannot act in isolation. Direct and immediate action and engagement is required by the federal government”. They also said, “In a multi-jurisdictional framework such as this, it is critical that municipal, provincial, and federal agencies work together to ensure that the interests of the public, First Nations, and the environment are protected”.
Guess who is missing: the federal government. It has been missing in action while this is taking place.
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- Oct/24/23 10:20:23 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table this petition on behalf of residents from Hornby Island, Denman Island and Deep Bay on Vancouver Island.
The petitioners are calling on the government to postpone licensing further shellfish aquaculture facilities located near herring spawning and rearing habitat in Baynes Sound until a full ecosystem-based assessment is completed on the impacts of this industry's activities on the herring stock, and that they also establish a record of effectively managing their gear and equipment and pay for the cleanup of tonnes of plastic debris. Further, they ask for the development of a co-management plan for Baynes Sound and Lambert Channel with first nations; this should be area-based and ecosystem-based, recognizing the first nations' unceded traditional territories.
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- Jun/16/23 12:20:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and privilege to table a petition on behalf of my incredibly and deeply frustrated constituents of Union Bay, which has become a test pilot for unregulated shipbreaking. They cite there are significant risks not only to the environment but to workers who are associated with shipbreaking due to the presence of a wide variety of hazardous materials in end-of-life marine vessels.
Unlike other jurisdictions, Canada lacks standards on shipbreaking and unregulated shipbreaking activities, which are putting our oceans, coastal communities and workers at risk, including the people of Baynes Sound in Lambert Channel.
The lack of domestic oversight of shipbreaking and disposal of end-of-life marine vessels frustrates Canada's ability to ensure compliance with its international obligations under the Basel Convention.
The petitioners are calling on the government to develop enforceable federal standards to reduce the negative environmental and social impacts of shipbreaking that meet or exceed those set out in the EU ship recycling program, and to provide assistance through loans or grants to long-term reputable shipbreaking companies, like those in Port Alberni, to facilitate implementation of new federal standards into their operations.
Finally, the petitioners are calling on the government to develop a strategy for recycling end-of-life federally owned marine vessels so that this is not taking place in communities like mine, putting jobs and the environment at risk.
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- Apr/17/23 7:36:47 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am rising again in the House, as I have on multiple occasions, to warn the government of the risks posed by unregulated shipbreaking.
This originates from a question in November 2022. On November 24, an oil spill was discovered on the shoreline of a shipbreaking facility that has been operating since 2020 in the community of Union Bay in my riding. This facility is operating despite legal challenges and warnings of environmental hazards from residents, local government and first nations. Now, a spill has happened, and the lack of federal regulations and guidelines to protect the ecosystem is glaring. The spill has led to serious concerns for Baynes Sound, which is home to over 50% of British Columbia's shellfish production and is critical to the local economy and many jobs. In addition, of course, there is the importance of the ecosystem.
I have spoken in the House about the lack of federal regulation of shipbreaking, as I cited, and have called on the government to take action to prevent such an incident.
I want to take members back to 2016, when I, Chief Councillor Recalma from the Qualicum Nation, our former MLA Scott Wilson, local shellfish owners and workers, tourism operators and locally elected officials had to go out on boats and take media to shine a light on the lack of response from government when it came to abandoned and derelict vessels.
There were two boats that had been sitting there, and the previous Conservative government had promised for a decade to remove them. The boats were threatening jobs. They were the Silver King and the Laurier II, and it took all of our pressure to finally get the government to respond and remove those vessels. What we do not want is a repeat of a long delay. We do not want the Liberals to go the way of the Conservatives and delay in responding to really important issues at hand.
Again, we applied pressure last time, and the government responded. We are hoping it will respond now, but we need to shift from a reactionary to a precautionary approach to prevent incidents like these. Instead of waiting for another spill, the government should urgently ratify the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, adopt regulations comparable to the EU's ship recycling regulations and provide financial support to qualified shipbreaking facilities to help them meet new standards and regulations. We know the government is in a consultation phase with the provinces, but it needs to fast-track that.
I want to highlight that the government's lack of response has really put the local economy and the environment at risk, but also right now we are learning that Transport Canada has no monitoring or enforcement of hazardous materials on board international vessels being shipped across Canada's border. There is only a voluntary certificate, which is done through Environment and Climate Change Canada, and it is effectively a self-reporting honour system. This is just unbelievable. There is the risk this puts on coastal communities, and it is also putting all the risk on provinces, first nations and indigenous communities and on local governments, which is totally irresponsible.
We need to look at what the EU has done when it comes to shipbreaking and recycling, as well as at the Hong Kong act.
I am really hopeful the government will take action and take a precautionary approach, and I am hoping today it is going to give us some sort of path to how it is going to remedy the situation before an environmental disaster takes place, even further to what is happening now.
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- Dec/2/22 11:48:02 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, again, I am warning the government of huge risks from unregulated shipbreaking. An oil spill was discovered on the shoreline of a shipbreaking facility in Union Bay on Vancouver Island. This facility has been operating despite legal challenges and objections from local governments and first nations.
Baynes Sound is critical to our local economy and ecosystems. It is home to over 50% of B.C. shellfish and is important for herring spawning.
The government's oceans protection plan is nowhere to be found.
Will the government finally act by creating by robust federal ship recycling regulations?
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- Apr/6/22 6:52:30 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, there is a situation in Union Bay on Vancouver Island in my riding. Baynes Sound, which is located on the east coast of Vancouver Island, is a 40-kilometre-long channel and is responsible for half of B.C.'s shellfish production. It is part of a 14-hectare provincial shellfish reserve. It is also the last major herring spawning ground in the province and is recognized by DFO as an ecologically and biologically significant area. It is also under immense pressure.
In December 2020, a ship-breaking operation moved into Union Bay, where rusty vessels, ferries, barges and old U.S. survey boats are cut up and recycled for scrap metal. Ship-breaking is an important industry. As we can imagine, we want to get rid of derelict and abandoned vessels and we want to make sure that we do the right thing and recycle huge amounts of steel, but it is also one of the most hazardous industries in the world.
Astonishingly, Canada does not have any ship-breaking regulations, and as a result, companies can quickly set up operations and begin dismantling vessels before regulators are even aware of their activity. Transport Canada says regulations are being considered and should be ready in the next three to five years. As we can imagine, that is not good enough. Canada could adopt the most stringent international regulations now if it wanted to.
Much of the world's ship-breaking happens in countries with poor environmental and labour laws. About 70% of international ship-breaking happens on the shores of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, making up about 90% of the industry's gross tonnage. Around 12% of Bangladesh's ship-breaking workforce are minors aged 14 to 17 years old. In the ship-breaking yards, minors often work at night because they have school during the day, earning three dollars a day. We need to be more responsible for all our waste, including vessels at end of life and ensure that human rights violations are not taking place.
We have a robust ship-building industry emerging here in Canada that we need to invest in, and we could take on a lot of ship-breaking here too. It could be a huge opportunity, in fact.
The risks of ship-breaking are huge. These old ships can contain asbestos, heavy metals like mercury and lead, polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, contaminated bilge water and ballast water containing sediment and bio-organisms. These toxins affect both employees and their families because things like asbestos can be carried home on clothing, and we know what these toxins can do to the environment.
The industry often suffers fatalities as a result of falls, fires, explosions and falling debris. An NGO website, Shipbreaking Platform, lists 429 deaths and 344 injuries just since 2009, but that number is likely much higher due to the under-reporting by these companies.
There are three international conventions regulating ship-breaking: the Basel convention, the Hong Kong Convention and the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. The Basel convention was ratified by Canada in 1992 and is intended to stop developed countries from shipping hazardous waste, including old ships, to developing countries. It provides recommendations on procedures, processes and practices to ensure safe and environmentally sound practices, as well as advice on monitoring and verification of environmental performance.
It has been difficult to apply the Basel convention to ships going for breaking, and shipping companies often falsely deny that ships are intended to be scrapped and instead claim they are going to repair yards. Canada feeds into this toxic trade economy by allowing commercial fleets, like BC Ferries, to sell vessels internationally. These shipping companies need to be more responsible.
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- Apr/26/23 3:58:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I present a petition on behalf of Hornby Islanders and Denman Islanders.
They are calling on the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard to ensure that she uses all the restorative aims and tools in the sustainable fisheries framework to ensure that any shellfish aquaculture facilities in Baynes Sound/Lambert Channel are ecosystem-based. The petitioners also want to ensure that all of the applications that are developed with first nations, like a co-management plan for Baynes Sound/Lambert Channel, are area-based and ecosystem-based, respect and recognize the unceded traditional territories of this location's unique area, and consider all other stakeholders.
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