Marine Strategy for BC Coast

Office of Randeep Sarai Member of Parliament Surrey–Centre

Marine Strategy for the B.C.

Coast

Prepared by Randeep Sarai, MP

September 2016

_________________ Randeep Sarai, MP


Contents

§ Marine Strategy for B.C. Coast

i. Marine Safety Institute

ii. Marine Research and Stewardship Centre of Excellence

iii. Coordinated Marine Command Centre

§ Summary


Marine Strategy for B.C. Coast As we all know, we are entering into a new era that will involve a greater amount of tanker traffic on our pristine coasts, whether that is for LNG, bitumen, or other natural resources. Nevertheless, we have sparse resources to react and respond on our long and vast coastline if a disaster is ever to occur. Currently, we have half a dozen pipelines and terminal proposals spread out over a 1000 km coast, with hardly any Coast Guard or response centres in-‐between. We therefore must create a comprehensive Marine Safety Strategy for the West Coast in order to safeguard our coast, foster safe and efficient trade, and gain the confidence of our constituents.


In order to achieve this, we need to have a Marine Safety Institute, a Marine Research and Stewardship Centre of Excellence, and a Coordinated Marine Command Centre.

I. Marine Safety Institute When analyzing the coast, we see that there is only a few Coast Guard and Navy Bases as well as vast distances between them. With our current layout spill response times can take very long (up to 12-‐14 hours).


Alternatively, if we reach out to the Indigenous communities located along the coast, starting from the Semiahmoo in the South, through the villages and up to Prince Rupert and the Haida Gwaii in the North, we can build a strong volunteer or reserve team that is able to respond faster and provide spill containment immediately. These communities have lived along the coast for centuries, know the waters better than anyone else and are also in desperate need of employment for their youth.


The next step would be to create a Marine Safety Institute, that is paired with a Polytechnic School such as BCIT or KPU, which would create courses and train not only Indigenous members, but also others that live along the coast or who would like to work on the numerous vessel and terminal associated companies that will emerge for spill response. The Marine Safety Institute would train people on spill detection, spill control, and spill management. Graduates from this training would be able to secure employment with companies building the terminals, our Coast Guard, or become "Volunteer Marine Stewards". We also encourage that the government explore creating a Reserve Marine Stewardship Unit that would be paid when asked to train, when called to action, and when semi-‐annually updating their training. This would create a large reserve team of first responders to spills that would not have to be paid full-‐time, but would be able to react faster and efficiently when called upon. Their training should be subsidized wholly by the terminal and pipeline operators and the GOC. The Institute should be built and funded by the companies wishing to operate these new facilities with some support from the GOC. This Institute should be highly visible and in a prominent location, preferably along the coast or near a port and should provide the best training so that it is recognized internationally. It should attract not only local students or employees seeking such training, but also employees and students from around the world.


II. Marine Research and Stewardship Centre of Excellence

Whereas the Institute would train and give skills, the Marine Research and Stewardship Centre should be an innovation centre, affiliated with a University such as SFU, and become a place where people research better prevention methods, safe carriage of natural resources and spill management and clean-‐up technologies. Again, this should be co-‐funded by the proponents of the projects and GOC. Similarly, it should also be situated in a highly visible location so that young people interested in this field become aware of it.


III. Coordinated Marine Command Centre

We believe a marine strategy should be co-‐ordinated by one agency or department and through a command centre it is able to communicate with several other ministries and departments. This would mean that the Coast Guard, Navy, private port companies and terminals, and the Coastal Indigenous Communities would be coordinated through a centralized Command Centre that would be able to rapidly identify, contain, and react to any incident that may occur. Currently, neither our Navy nor Coast Guard is able to reach many parts of the Pacific Coast for a number of hours (in many cases more than 12-‐14 hours), therefore, a need for additional resources exists and would be very helpful. The Command Centre should be located near the Burrard Inlet and function as a state of the art facility, capable of observing ship movement along the coast, able to receive and provide communication when trouble with a ship or a spill is detected, and immediately dispatch a volunteer team or spill management team to the affected area. This structure should have clear delineation of power as to who does what and when.


Summary We must formulate a detailed strategy for the BC Coast that addresses marine safety through advanced training, education, coordination, and community buy-‐in. This can only be done if we have a well planned, coordinated, and proactive plan, that insures the opportunity for our constituents to earn the trust of our government. It must also ensure safe waterways for generations to come while also allowing our resources to get to the market safely and efficiently. Additionally, this involves giving training, skills, and equipment to communities living on the Coast, including Indigenous communities, equivalent to a "Volunteer Fire Department" or "Reservists" as stated above. Those wishing to participate would not only get training to identify and react to any marine tanker traffic incident, but those young people would also acquire skills that are necessary for employment in the various private companies or government departments, including the Coast Guard or Navy. In all, the training would allow for benefit in providing skills, being an employment incubator, and contributing to a marine safety strategy. In addition to the Navy and Coast Guard, private companies who are planning to build the terminals should be invited to contribute to the equipment and training, including training the coastal communities and thus getting their contribution to fund the program. While this may be in play, it is imperative that the government formalize this and share it with the public to give them confidence that marine safety of our coasts is a top priority, all stakeholders are involved, and the employment opportunities will be beyond the oil and gas sectors.

Marine Strategy for BC Coast

Documents

Transcript of Marine Strategy for BC Coast