23-October 2023:  
Bruce McConchie, Spokesperson of the South Coast Ship Watch Alliance, speaks at the parliamentary Transport Committee in Ottawa

Hearing on Bill C-33, 44th Parliament, 1st Session:
Text, Video

 We are concerned that the consequence of the word “anchorage” in proposed paragraph (f.2) of Bill C-33 would be to allow the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, an industrial entity, to implement its plan to expand its jurisdictional boundaries to include cargo ship anchorages within the southern Gulf Islands and the adjacent Vancouver Island waters. This should not happen.

These anchorages are unnecessary. If the port of Vancouver implemented a modern vessel arrival system and restricted early arrivals, as is done in ports elsewhere; if the Minister of Transport would demand the port require all-weather grain loading—currently, grain cannot be loaded in the rain in Vancouver; if the federal government would suspend shipping of thermal coal, a major contributor to climate change; and if the supply chain to the port was optimized and the many inefficiencies addressed, we would see an end to this attack on the fragile ecosystems of our Salish Sea.

Our ultimate goal is the elimination of the anchorages because they are unnecessary and language to that effect to give the Minister of Transport the authority to declare the southern Gulf Islands waters and adjacent Vancouver Island waters a special sanctuary zone.