Thanks to Ray Rewcastle, Ashlee Gerlock and Marilynne Manning of Concerned Citizens of Baynes Sound (CCOBS) for taking time to meet with me on Monday and to tour the beach adjacent to the ship breaking operation at Union Bay. It is common sense that Canada should have effective ship recycling regulations in place for end of life vessels, including a requirement for floating dry dock for large vessels, self contained to protect the ecosystem and workers. No such regulations exist and this operation certainly doesn’t do anything like this.
As a result, Environmental Compliance BC has now served the operator, Deep Water Recovery with a Pollution Abatement Order related to activities near #UnionBay. The Order requires them to immediately cease discharge of contaminated effluent & hire a Qualified Professional to assess, monitor & report on site conditions. Canada is a shipbreaking nightmare. I have been up in the House of Commons and met with successive federal ministers on multiple occasions since Joyce Murray was DFO minister. DFO officials under the current minister Diane Lebouthillier give the appearance of running and hiding from the issue but I’m not going to relent as I’m expecting to meet with her again to fight for the community and the environment in two weeks.