In November of 2017, federal Transportation Minister Marc Garneau introduced Bill C-64 to the House of Commons to prohibit vessel abandonment, picking up where a private member’s bill submitted by former West Vancouver Sea to Sky MP John Weston left off. Weston, a Conservative, says he supports the new bill and is heading to Ottawa next week to comment on it before MPs vote on it for a third time.
Weston says the creation of his private members bill, Bill C-695, which stopped moving forward with the 2015 federal election, was shaped largely by his work with Bowen Islander Bruce Russel and Bowen’s Municipal Manager of Parks and Environment, Bonny Brokenshire.
“I spent a lot of time, as the MP for West Vancouver Sea to Sky, paddling around on Mannion Bay with Bruce and Bonny,” says Weston. “I am very happy to see that this issue has been picked up again, and to see that not just my work, but the work of a number of people, was not done in vain.”
The background information included with Bill C-64 outlines the problems associated with abandoned vessels, including environmental damage and blemishing the sea-scape. Weston says these problems were very much alive in the Sea to Sky riding when he was MP, and “people were at their wits end.”
Weston adds that alongside conversations with Russell and Brokenshire, as well as visits to Mannion Bay, one of the key influences in the creation of Bill C-695 was environmental activist Eoin Finn from Bowyer Island.
“Mr. Finn was a harsh critic on Conservative environmental policies, overly so, I would say,” recalls Weston. “But one day we were standing next to one another and he suggested slapping the offender of this violation with fines and encarceration. This became the core of my proposal, and personal responsibility became the underlying value in Bill C-695.”
This was the first time the idea of imposing jail times for abandoning vessels was proposed in Canada, and Weston says he is pleased to see Bill C-64 includes that specific aspect.
The new Liberal government picked up this bill in part because Weston’s political opponent, current MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, “graciously endorsed it.”
In his testimony next week, Weston says he will make a number of suggestions to improve and clarify the bill.
Weston says he sees the story of abandoned vessels legislation in Canada as an example of what can be accomplished when political adversaries come together to find a broadly supported solution to problems.
“My hope is that for people who are turned off government, they see a story like this and roll up their sleeves and do something to improve their community or country,” says Weston.
