PROTECTION AGAINST
SHIP SOURCE MARINE POLLUTION

The role of Transport Canada is to ensure high standards for a transportation system that is safe, efficient and respectful of the marine environment. Transport Canada contributes to the protection of the marine environment in a number of ways:

• To ensure their seaworthiness, Canadian ships must be built, maintained and operated according to Transport Canada safety standards and regulations. The proper maintenance and operation of vessels help eliminate marine casualties and, concurrently, any marine pollution associated with the grounding, collisions or loss of vessels.
• To ensure the protection of the marine environment, a number of regulations have been implemented under the Canada Shipping Act and the Arctic Waters Pollution Protection Act. These regulations establish standards for the carriage and discharge of pollutants, including oil, chemicals, garbage, sewage and air emissions.
• Under Canada's Port State control program, Transport Canada ship inspectors board and inspect foreign ships at Canadian ports. Foreign ships that do not meet safety standards are detained until their deficiencies have been rectified. All foreign tankers are inspected on their first visit to Canada and once a year thereafter.
• New regulations have been put in effect requiring that any tanker built or receiving substantial modifications after 1993 must be double hulled to operate in Canadian waters. Tankers that are not double hulled, depending upon such criteria as their size or when they were built or converted, will be gradually phased out of operating in Canadian waters by 2015.
• Transport Canada participates in training and promotion campaigns to educate the marine and fishing industry on the current regulations for protecting the marine environment.
• When ship source pollution is detected in the marine environment – through aerial surveillance or other means – Transport Canada investigates in close cooperation with Environment Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard. When sufficient evidence is collected, charges are laid using regulations under the Canada Shipping Act, or the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, depending on the location of the incident.
• Transport Canada works closely with other federal agencies such as Environment Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard and the Department of National Defence as well as other agencies to reduce, and if possible, eliminate ship source pollution in Canadian waters. This includes cooperating in aerial surveillance of the shipping lanes off our coast, as well as educating ship operators on the harmful effect that even small quantities of substances such as oil can have on marine wildlife.

Transport Canada, through its participation to the International Maritime Organization, is also a signatory to a number of international conventions that promote cooperation in reducing pollution world-wide.

May 2006