The City of Campbell River’s council is endorsing a framework to manage vessels along the city’s waterways.
The framework encourages the establishment of local working groups that includes local governments, First Nations governments, marine industry representatives, and provincial and federal agencies.
During Monday’s meeting, city councillors voted to endorse the framework but is also asking Transport Canada for clarification on a few things.
The city has concerns in issues including marine spills, coastguard resourcing, offshore moorage, abandoned vessels, fisheries enforcement, and marine and water pollution. While working groups are important, they will focus on collaboration and implementing voluntary actions and policies, so they don’t have formal powers.
The city is then asking for further guidance on the working groups’ powers, mandate and accountability.
The city is also asking about additional resources and grant funds to help establish and maintain the working groups.
Long Range and Sustainability staff put together the draft response to send to Transport Canada. Councillor Claire Moglove says she commends staff for the clear and measured response to the framework.
“I just want to say the response is really well-thought-out and raised a lot of the kind of questions I would have on this type of issue,” Moglove said.
“It also puts the onus back to the federal (government) to basically say ‘listen, you want us to do all this, provide some resources and provide some clarity on what it is.’”
Mayor Andy Adams says his biggest concern is the amount of staff time it will take to look into establishing the working groups.
The city’s response to the national framework must be sent in by September 27th.
