- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Courtenay—Alberni
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- 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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- Apr/8/24 10:13:32 p.m.
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Madam Chair, we know the Conservatives say that the Liberals have not made the softwood lumber agreement a priority, but I can tell members that the Conservatives have made partisan politics a priority.
I want to talk about solutions. I will read from a letter I sent to the minister calling for the federal government to support the biomass proposal that it did put in the fall economic statement. I cited that “With one-fifth of Canada's clean energy businesses being indigenous owned, biomass investments reassert Canada's commitment to their 94 Calls to Action and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous-owned biomass facilities, such as the [Natural Resources Canada]-supported Whitesand Bioeconomy Centre, can create hundreds of...jobs for local Indigenous communities while simultaneously meeting local energy needs.”
Hopefully, we can actually get back to solutions. I want to know if my colleague supports expanding the indigenous national partnerships program and funding for companies like Iskum, the new consortium on the west coast of British Columbia. Does he believe that we should be prioritizing investing in indigenous-owned businesses and that we should be working toward solutions that are outside the box, instead of the 42 years of pointing fingers? Obviously, we need to do our due diligence on international trade, but we also need to change what we are doing here at home.
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- Apr/8/24 10:06:13 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I too sat on the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans with my colleague, and I really appreciated her fighting for rural Canada. Whether it be her in Quebec or me in British Columbia, we work well together.
I was reading a quote that was sent to the Standing Committee on Finance. It was in a pre-budget consultation submission put forward by Paper Excellence. The company wrote:
Greater Support for Indigenous Lead Development in the Forest Bioeconomy—
We are advocating for increased support for economic opportunities in Indigenous communities to foster the development of the forest bioeconomy and promote partnerships and collaborations through the expansion of the Indigenous Natural Resource Partnerships (INRP) program.
Does my colleague agree? Again, while we see Liberals and Conservatives pointing fingers at who is to blame for 42 years of failed softwood, what I have really liked about the Bloc is that the members have brought forward solutions tonight. We have to talk about solutions because what the Conservatives and the Liberals have been doing is not working.
Does my colleague agree, in the upcoming budget, that the federal government needs to invest in and expand the indigenous natural resource partnerships program, and how critical it is that we support indigenous-owned and indigenous-led businesses and initiatives?
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- Apr/8/24 9:35:32 p.m.
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Madam Chair, one thing I really want to thank my colleague for is talking about the importance of indigenous-led forestry companies and the role they play.
There is a new forestry company that just launched last week called Iskum, which is basically a consortium of over 20 first nations in coastal British Columbia. It is led by Chief John Jack of the Huu-ay-aht Nation and the former elected chief, Robert Dennis.
We know the forest industry currently employs about 10,000 indigenous individuals, both directly and indirectly. It is crucial to provide more support for economic opportunities in indigenous and rural communities, fostering the development of the forest bioeconomy and encouraging diverse partnerships and collaborations.
The indigenous natural resource partnerships program led by Natural Resources Canada needs to be expanded. If this is done, it could play a crucial role in supporting projects related to forest management, workplace training and the production of conventional forest products. Especially, investing in the forest bioeconomy will establish community-based employment and businesses promoting diversification and scalability.
Does my colleague agree that the federal government needs to invest in renewing and expanding the Natural Resources Canada program as a broader strategy for the sector?
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- Jun/15/22 8:15:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it was not long ago that we had a Conservative government that removed a tariff of 25% for those who wanted to build ferries outside of our country. That money could have been used to develop shipyards in our country. We hear from Conservatives that they want faster and cheaper ships built outside of Canada. We know we can do better.
Right now, the Liberals still are not investing in small shipyards. I appreciate the effort they are making with the national shipbuilding strategy, but they have not done that. We have invited transport minister after transport minister to come to our community to meet with the Port Alberni Port Authority to hear about this great opportunity, to meet with first nations and the City of Port Alberni. We have had support from, as I said, BC Ferries and many others.
We have done a third party assessment of this proposal and it is coming out with solid support, yet there are still no supports. We know that we do not currently deal with ship-breaking, for example, in the right way. This could be an opportunity, as well, for us to fulfill our environmental obligations, which we are not fulfilling.
Hopefully, we will be able to work together on developing this important piece of infrastructure.
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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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