Not Enough Being Done to Deal With Abandoned Vessels on Canada’s Coasts, Says MP

A Fisheries and Oceans patrol boat passes by the MV Farley Mowat in Sydney, N.S., in 2008. A B.C. MP is pressing Ottawa to do more to deal with the hundreds of abandoned vessels that blight Canada's coasts and harbours. The Canadian Press/Mike Dembeck

HALIFAX—A British Columbia MP is pressing Ottawa to do more to deal with the hundreds of abandoned vessels that blight Canada’s coasts and harbours, despite a new federal program announced last month.

New Democrat Sheila Malcolmson brought her campaign to Nova Scotia on July 25, where money and years of effort have been spent dealing with such high-profile cases as the MV Miner in Cape Breton and the MV Farley Mowat in Shelburne.

Malcolmson said that as things stand, it appears abandoned vessels will still largely remain a problem that is often left to municipal and provincial governments.

“We have a real legal hole in Canada,” she said. “Other countries and other states have fixed the abandoned vessel problem, but this is costing coastal communities on all three coasts big time.”

Malcolmson has tabled a bill she said would address the legal hole by fixing vessel registration, piloting a vessel turn-in program and supporting local salvagers and vessel recycling.

She said the bill would also make the coast guard responsible for directing the removal of all abandoned vessels.

Setting areas of clear responsibility is key, said the member for Nanaimo-Ladysmith.

“I think the real failing that we’ve got right now is that there’s no process and there’s no one single-point ministry, and my legislation is intended to fill that gap.”

This is costing coastal communities on all three coasts big time.