Small craft harbours Pacific Regional Harbour Authority Advisory Committee (PRHAAC)

Record of discussion

Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Teleconference

1. Welcome and review of agenda

The meeting agenda was reviewed and Divestiture was added to the agenda.

2. Review of RoD and action items

Action Items from the previous meeting were reviewed and discussed.

3. DFO and SCH update

Karen Calla provided the following updates to members:

FY 2018/19 - Budget 2018

• 47 projects for B-base Funding,
• 4 projects for the Abandoned and Wrecked Vessels Removal Program,
• 56 projects for A-base funding for a total of 19.5M.

Budget 2020

• National SCH will be seeking an increase A-base funding for the program.

SCH Staff update

• Jordan Mah, Nakita Cheung, Jennalee Domke, Richard Chan and Claire Salvador have departed SCH since the last PRHAAC and the new staff who joined the SCH team are Cindy Wong, Lam Hughson and Jenny Mbarushimana.

4. Debrief Standing Committee On Fisheries and Oceans (SCOFO)

Karen Calla provided a debrief on the SCOFO report. The report recognized the Program’s challenges such as funding which resulted in 14 recommendations for DFO.

Frank Mauro represented on behalf of PHRAAC. Pacific’s Region’s concerns were captured in the report such as funding and the difficulties associated with dredging.

Action: Lam Hughson to share the SCOFO report’s link to PRHAAC members.

5. Update on National Harbour Authority Advisory Committee (NHAAC)

Dates set for NHAAC Pacific Region visit is Nov 5-7, 2019.

Location: downtown Vancouver

The region is responsible for organizing a site tour for NHAAC on Nov 7th.

Tour Options:

• Option 1: Sunshine Coast: visit Gibson, Secret Cove and Madeira Park
• Option 2: Vancouver Island: visit French Creek, Deep Bay and Fanny Bay
• Option 3: Vancouver: visit False Creek, Steveston, Ladner and McMillian Island

PRHAAC discussed tour options and which would best showcase the Pacific Region.

It was noted that all options provided a diverse group of harbours and minimizing travel time should be considered.

6. Crane Review:

SCH started a review on cranes with the objective to reduce liabilities and increase safety for SCH and Harbour Authorities (HAs).

SCH has been gathering information from various sources:

• Random phone surveys of HAs and collecting guidance materials
• HAABC has been asking HAs at zone meetings
• Gathering information from other regions

This information gathering exercise showed that there are no standardized policies.

There was support to move forward using PRHAAC and HAABC to standardize an approach.

It is anticipated that a draft SCH policy will be ready for PRHAAC review by the fall.

7. Net recycling

Steveston Harbour Authority (SHA) has the net recycling program up and running.

The program has no funding for shipping nets to SHA.

SCH will be supporting a study with SHA to look at net recycling as a regional program. The study will identify net volume, where they are located and shipping costs to SHA. It will also explore program funding options to subsidize if needed.

SCH has been talking to HAABC to see if they are able to help with logistics.

8. Derelict vessels

The Abandoned and Wrecked Vessels Removal Program (AWVRP) is still taking applications for Year 3.

For Year 4 and 5, there is a total of 875 k in funding available after which, the program will come to an end.

Transport Canada’s Bill C-64 will be coming into effect as of July 30, 2019 where owners will be responsible for all costs relating to removal/disposal of their vessel and any environmental contamination mitigation costs if it is deemed a wreck/derelict.

SCH will help HAs with their applications and is drafting a poster for HAs to post at harbours so that users understand the impacts of Bill C-64.

It was noted that HAs are having issues with finding owners. There is a process where HAs can obtain ownership of vessels when the owners cannot be located.

9. Divestiture

Harbour Authority of Pender Harbour (HAPH) was surprised to learn that 2 of their harbours are on the divestiture list and felt that the process is not transparent as the HA was not consulted. They also felt that there is a communication gap between SCH and the HA since SCH was approached by local media for comment and did not consult with HAPH. It was suggested for better communication coordination especially in regards to media and planning and for SCH to consult with HAs prior to responding to media.

Karen Calla informed committee members that in regards to media, SCH is expected to respond in a specific timeframe and to be as accurate as possible. If possible, SCH tries to consult with HAs.

She also reminded committee members that SCH’s mandate is to support commercial fishing harbours. Sites that are added to the divestiture list are ones that does not support the mandate. The divestiture list is a long term planning tool and SCH re-evaluates sites before beginning the divestiture process to determine if the current use has changed.

Karen will provide PRHAAC with a walk through on SCH’s divestiture strategy

Bring forward: SCH will provide a walk through on SCH’s divestiture strategy at a future meeting.

10. Wrap-up and next meeting

Next meeting: Wednesday, September 18, 2019 at 401 Burrard Street.

Suggested items for the next meeting:

• presentation from WCMRC – Western Canada Marine Response Committee and CCG regarding TMX and how it affects SCH areas
• TC –Bill C64 update
• NHAAC tour update
  • Tour package that contains an overview of the Pacific Region and the harbours

Action items

1. Lam Hughson to share the SCOFO report’s link to PRHAAC members.

Bring forward

1. The Dredging topic will be deferred to the next face to face meeting as further discussions need to occur within SCH.
2. SCH will provide a walk through on SCH’s divestiture strategy at a future meeting.