B.C’s environment minister says federal authorities are dropping the ball and not helping to deal with derelict vessels on the Fraser River.
Terry Lake says seven vessels including BC Ferries’ the former Queen of Sidney have been secured, but now there’s a new concern one of the boats is leaking oil.
“We have alerted the Canadian Coast Guard and we are still waiting for a response. This is a bit frustrating for a response and this is a bit frustrating for us, because we feel that there should be a little bit more response to this kind of situation on the part of the federal authorities.”
Lake says overlapping jurisdictions make dealing with derelict vessels a real problem, and not just on the Fraser.
“We have these overlapping jurisdictions in terms of federal government, provincial government, local government but I think the average British Columbian would say lets get together and lets figure this out because we have got this situation in other areas along the coast it is unacceptable and I think we need to make sure that we have our federal counterparts and our provincial authorities in a room together and figure out a strategy going forward where we don’t run into this problem into the future.”
He says the ministry is working to mitigate the impacts of the leaking oil as they wait for the feds to show up.
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