ADAM OLSEN -- The response from the Ministry was underwhelming at best, and there continues to be an unwillingness to demonstrate leadership on these issues

On Wednesday (June 19^th) I provided a few examples of the federal government's mismanagement of our oceans. My focus was on protecting resources and its preparation and response to oil spills. If you need more evidence then check out the absolute disaster that is our salmon fisheries.

To be fair to the current administration, they inherited a gutted ministry, with a gutted budget and gutted legislation. However, they are seeking the confidence of British Columbians to manage a dramatic increase of shipments of diluted bitumen. So, we must start from the basis that their track record is miserable.

Active Pass -- Southern Gulf Islands

Another frustrating example of mismanagement is the vessel parking in the Salish Sea.
 
 

In October 2018 I wrote Transport Canada asking the Minister to address the longstanding concerns of Southern Gulf Island residents and Penelakut Nation about the challenges with vessels anchoring for prolonged periods of time. The bays, inlets and channels are essentially being used as a parking lot to store vessels for international shipping corporations. Sometimes they sit for weeks or months at a time with seemingly no regulatory enforcement from the federal government. 

No response to repeated requests

Since my election, I have had a steady flow of correspondence from residents of the Southern Gulf Islands about the issues created by vessels at anchor.

I asked the Minister to consider three ideas to improve the situation in the Salish Sea.

1. A ship lighting policy. There is an international legal standard that requires ships at anchor to be well lit so that other mariners can see them. This directly conflicts with the needs of their community neighbours. I asked the Minister to implement a regulated lighting policy to minimize the impact.
2. Innovation – The practice of prolonged anchoring of ships in and amongst the Southern Gulf Islands is simply the cheapest, easiest way forward. I strongly recommended that the Ministry embrace innovation and invest in hard point mooring buoys and electrification. This will better organize the ships and decrease emissions.
3. Densification – I requested the Minister consider densifying the number of anchorage locations in English Bay and suggested this could be achieved through reorganizing existing anchorages and potentially with technologies such as mooring buoys.

The response from the Ministry was underwhelming at best, and there continues to be an unwillingness to demonstrate leadership on these issues. As a result, the shipping companies are taking advantage of us.

Add this to the fact they are only now reluctantly addressing oil spill preparedness and response capacity because they so desperately need a political win on pipelines. Recently, they have pulled out a desperate last-ditch effort to show something on the Pacific salmon fishery that they have nearly managed to extinction, following the same model that gave them success in nearly extirpating the east coast cod. 

Poor consultation ... perhaps it's time to re-open another wound.

IMAGE:  Parks Canada

Over the past decade our federal government has substantively bungled the consultation for the Southern Strait of Georgia National Marine Conservation Area, a result of engaging and consulting Indigenous groups last. Frankly, this failure was entirely avoidable. I consistently warned them of the perils of this when they came to the tri-municipal Council table on the Saanich Peninsula (and at other tables), for almost a decade. But government knew best!

No matter what you feel about the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project, it's pretty clear to me that there is little evidence to suggest we should have any confidence in the federal government to deliver this project safely.

We need to demand that before they increase the frequency of shipping a substance, they have little information about how a spill will affect the natural environment, they have to demonstrate they can get a parking lot right. Or, that they can successfully negotiate the terms of a conservation area that everybody wants to get done.

Until then, be wary. 


Adam Olsen ... is a Green Party Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for Saanich North and the Islands. Born in Victoria, BC in 1976, Adam has lived, worked and played his entire life on the Saanich Peninsula. He is a member of Tsartlip First Nation (W̱JOȽEȽP), where he and his wife, Emily, are raising their two children, Silas and Ella.