Less than two weeks after an abandoned vessel sank in Ladysmith Harbour, the federal government has introduced legislation to clean up the rotting boats that foul our coasts.
Unfortunately, the timing of the bill represents coincidence, not speedy action. Successive governments have avoided this complex problem for decades, so it鈥檚 a relief for coastal communities finally to see some action.
Under the new Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act, it will be illegal to abandon vessels in Canadian harbours and waterways. Individuals who abandon a boat can face fines up to $300,000 and a six-month jail term, while corporations can be fined as much as $6 million.
Big numbers like those will make boat owners take notice. Until now, someone who let an unmaintained boat ride at anchor year after year until it sank faced no penalties. Those who lost interest, couldn鈥檛 afford the upkeep or couldn鈥檛 find a buyer for an unwanted boat have been free to walk away.
The new law is aimed at ending that impunity. It鈥檚 part of a national strategy on wrecked and abandoned vessels.
Harbours and bays along the coast are blighted by vessels moored or anchored by absent owners until the boats can no longer stay afloat. Then they go from being eyesores to being environmental and navigation hazards. Fuel, engine oil and other substances escape into the water, the boat can wash onto the shore, and other vessels can run into an unseen boat that has sunk in shallow water.
Pulling these boats out of the water before they sink is obviously the cheapest and most effective strategy. But as Victoria, Oak Bay, Saanich, Central Saanich and a host of other communities have found, cleaning up such vessels has been a bureaucratic nightmare because of conflicting jurisdictions and a lack of money.
Money is the biggest roadblock to turning the legislation into an effective plan. The government has set aside $1.325 million over five years for harbour authorities to remove vessels, but that will barely touch a problem that extends to hundreds or thousands of abandoned boats.
The government will have to put more money into the cleanup if it hopes to make a difference.
While under the new legislation, commercial owners will have to buy insurance against abandonment and private owners will face hefty fines that could defray cleanup costs, the penalties won鈥檛 apply to vessels that have already been abandoned. That means taxpayers will have to pay for all of them.
One of the problems is lack of an effective system to identify vessel owners. Officials can鈥檛 be sure of who owns many of the boats out there, so they don鈥檛 know where to send the bill.
The federal government recognizes that problem, and the national strategy includes plugging gaps in commercial-vessel registration and sitting down with provincial and territorial governments to improve the licensing of pleasure craft. That will be essential to ensuring that future violators can be tracked down.
The government should also spend some time thinking about prevention. Owners who know what to do with a boat that is at the end of its life are less likely to walk away from it. Is there a way to make decommissioning and recycling of boats more accessible and affordable?
Cleaning up our coasts will be difficult and time-consuming, but the federal government is finally trying to solve a problem that will only get worse if we don鈥檛 act now.
