SYDNEY — There’s no change in the
federal government’s stand on the MV Miner, which has been stranded on the shores
of Scatarie Island for 2 months.
Speaking after the dedication ceremony
for the MV Highlanders, Minister of State for Transportation Steven Fletcher
reiterated past points made by the federal government on the derelict bulk
carrier.
“I communicated that the federal
government has 2 primary responsibilities,” Fletcher said of a meeting last
week with an all-party delegating from Nova
Scotia
“One is to ensure that waterways remain
navigable, and secondly, that the environmental impact would be minimized.”
Fletcher said the 230-metre ship is not
a navigational hazard and that any potential pollutants have been removed.
The minister said progress on the issue
was made during the “thoughtful discussion.”
“We’ve also, I thought, had a very good
discussion on how to keep one another informed and how we can work together,
but also on a go-forward basis to review legislation both federally and
provincially for any potential proactive measures that can be taken to deal
with this type of situation in the future.”
Transport Canada
Questions turned from ships that could
be recycled to those that already have been recycled during Fletcher’s meeting
with reporters.
Marine Atlantic’s new vessels — the MV
Highlanders and the MV Blue Puttees —
replaced the MV Joseph and Clara Smallwood and the MV Caribou, which ended up
in a controversial ship-breaking yard in India.
Fletcher said the federal government
feels no responsibility for the final destination of the two ships.
“The disposal of ships are operational
decisions of Marine Atlantic,” he said. “They complied with international
marine organization guidelines and once you sold a ship and it gets resold and
resold, it is tough.”
Wayne Follett president of Marine
Atlantic, said the corporation followed a comprehensive process of public
tendering to select an international broker to sell the vessels.
“I’ve heard varying assessments of the
yard they are in,” said Follett.
“We are currently, through the broker,
having some monitoring conducted of that yard to see in fact how they do
proceed to recycle the vessels and in fact whether they follow the green
recycling rules. At this point in time we have no evidence to the contrary.”
Having the vessels recycled in an environmentally
friendly yard was part of the sales agreement, Follett said.
If evidence surfaces that they were not
recycled in a green manner, Marine Atlantic’s legal counsel will be consulted.
“In the end it will come down to a
monetary question because they will have been recycled and whether there is
value in us pursuing a monetary penalty,” he said. “We haven’t gone to that yet
because we haven’t completed any monitoring of the project.”
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