Rachel Blaney Calls for Better Federal Response to MV Kingston Shipping Container Spill

It's been three months since 109 shipping containers fell from a cargo ship traveling through rough seas off the west coast of Vancouver Island, yet the location of all but four remain unknown.

Raven Country News spoke with Rachel Blaney, MP of North Island Powell River, about the changes needed in the response to events such as this.

“One of the problems of course is that there is no coordinated response. Whatever is washed ashore they are responsible for cleaning up, if it doesn’t come ashore at that time then there is really no response afterwards.”

“There needs to be better work with local people who do this work already, and of course the Indigenous communities within the region.”

Hazardous chemicals are in at least two of the 105 missing 40-foot containers. Other contents include christmas decorations, metal car parts, clothing, toys, as well as industrial parts.

She says that without coordinated response many of these pollutants might not be recovered, some of which will have devastating environmental impact, given the presence of hazardous material in two of the containers, that has not been located yet.

Blaney says the manifest hasn't been released, which will be crucial in ensuring that as much is cleaned up as possible.

“The other thing is, transport Canada still has not released the manifest. So we still don’t know the full extent of what has been deposited in these crates in our ocean.”

Blaney says ocean debris is a long term problem that is a shared responsibility, but falls firmly on the shoulders of those responsible and our Federal Government.

“The long term problem, is that we are still seeing on our beaches things that have been spilled in the 90’s for example. There is no responsibility of the business who has lost all of this, to put any money into some sort of fund that allows for continuous cleaning at the beaches as things arrive.”

“The Federal Government is not stepping up and saying 'hey actually this isn’t right, lets make a better process'. So that the response is quicker, that there is long term funding, so these organizations that are experts are no longer fundraising to do the work, and actually have the resources to do it.”

She told us that ocean debris is a long term problem and lack of Federal support leaves affected communities without reliable assistance.

“So it really just gives our communities, that are going to live with the impacts for years to come, not a lot of say or power to address these issues and to protect the ocean the way we want to.” 

“Amazing volunteers in our riding are downloaded with no resources for this ongoing cleanup, and they are having to fundraise for it, for something that a business was able to write off in their insurance. They have given a little money to the cleanup but not the amount that needs to be there.”

She says that cleanup organizations locally struggle to communicate with governing bodies once the incident is no longer considered an emergency.

“Now that the “crisis point” is considered over by the government, I certainly don’t consider it over,  they are told to go to the 1-800 number like everyone else. I don’t think thats right, these are people who are highly trained, highly skilled, they know what they’re doing. They should be given access to government branches so that their voice can be heard and the response can be coordinated.”

Blaney says the Coast Guard can only do so much with their limited resources,

“I can’t fault them I think the folks on the ground that work for the coast guard are doing all they can do. I appreciate their work and I think its incredibly valuable, but what we’ve heard also from constituents in this area is that we don’t have enough people working locally for the Coast Guard. We have a huge amount of coastline, a lot of challenges, but not enough people to meet the need.”

"It's required by law for the polluter to pay for any cleanup activities to the satisfaction of the Government of Canada" the Coast Guard said.

Blaney along with Epic Exeo, a Port McNeill nonprofit dedicated to beach cleanups cofounder Ashley Tapp, don't consider the cleanup activities resolved.

Tapp said. "I am beginning to believe and think there are shipping containers close to the shore that are open,  every new tide could be bringing in new debris."

She’s calling on the federal government to create a plan that will fund a regular search of the shorelines.

Her organization "Epic Exeo" will be heading out again in February to see what else has washed ashore. 

It seems like the ocean will be the one to decide when this crisis is over.

Blaney and the NDP are calling on Federal Government to improve their coordination and response to environmental catastrophes such as this, especially ones that affect so many remote, and Indigenous communities.

Rachel Blaney's office will be sending out a feedback mailer to constituents to gather local opinion on the matter,

“We are going to be, probably February/March, sending out a mailer with a response card, to everyone in the constituency asking for their feedback and thoughts on this. We know there’s work to be done here.”

The Federal Government has not yet issued a statement on this ongoing matter, but we will keep you updated when they do.