SPEAKING NOTES FOR THE HONOURABLE LAWRENCE CANNON
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT, INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNITIES
AT A HEALTH OF CANADA'S OCEANS EVENT

MONT-JOLI, QUEBEC
OCTOBER 5, 2007

Dear friends, when I was young, I spent my summers along this river – but at another location.

Unfortunately, my generation can no longer look at it with the same pride and awe as when we were young.

We feel a certain sadness when we think about the damage done to our waterways and the air we breath.

But it's not too late to act.

We're here today to speak about how Canada's New Government is taking action to protect one of Canada's most valuable and precious resources – our oceans.

Canada borders three oceans and features the world's longest coastline.

These resources are an important part of our environment, our culture and our prosperity as a nation. Our waters are, indeed, our future.

But to ensure that they're healthy for the future, we need to take action to protect our oceans today.

This is why Canada's New Government affirmed its commitment to the Health of the Oceans initiative in Budget 2007, with an investment of $61.5 million over five years.

I'm pleased to announce that of the Health of Oceans funding, $23.8 million over five years will go to Transport Canada. This funding is for initiatives that will help improve the marine environment of Canada's three oceans.

These initiatives will help protect Canada's waterways from ship-source pollution, contribute to the economic prosperity of Canada's coastal communities and strengthen our stewardship of Canada's Arctic.

Lets look at where this funding will go.

First, we'll use $4.5 million over five years to enforce the Canada Shipping Act, 2001 ballast water control and management regulations. Under these regulations, we'll make sure that ships manage ballast properly. We want to reduce the risk of having any harmful aquatic organisms or pathogens released into our waters by ships.

The second area we're using the funding in is aerial surveillance of our waters.

This is one of the best ways to combat ships polluting our waters.

Just as simply having visible police cruisers on our highways helps reduce speeding, the ongoing presence of pollution patrols can also deter potential polluters.

We know it's effective.

Transport Canada conducted a record-breaking 1,649 hours of dedicated pollution patrol.

During these hours, our surveillance aircraft flew over 10,000 vessels and detected 98 pollution incidents. This year, we hope to increase pollution patrol hours by nearly 25 per cent, up to 2,000 hours.

We're also investing $13 million over five years for the National Aerial Surveillance Program. But the program does much more than just monitor polluters. It will also help us:

• Increase the frequency of patrols and area of coverage to locations not normally patrolled on a dedicated basis, such as the Arctic;
• gather evidence to prosecute polluters; and
• establish a greater presence that will deter potential polluters.

If we're going to be doing more work in our Surveillance Program, we need to make sure we have the right equipment – equipment suited to our northern climate and geography.

After all, we'll be working in the North over Canada's Arctic waters where the days are shorter and weather is more severe. Our surveillance equipment also must be useful at night, as we will fly up to 30 per cent of our pollution patrols during darkness. This is when many illegal discharges occur.

That's why we're also investing $5 million over three years to outfit Transport Canada's Dash 7 Surveillance Aircraft with a maritime surveillance system.

With this system, the aircraft can be used in all weather and visibility conditions.

The fourth area that Transport Canada will utilize the Health of the Oceans funding in is the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment, an Arctic Council initiative that is being co-led by Canada, Finland and the United States.

As part of this initiative, Transport Canada will study Canada's Arctic marine shipping activity , along with the social, economic and environmental data related to that use.

This information will be useful in assessing current, as well as predicting future marine shipping uses and activities and the impacts of changing marine traffic.

And finally, Transport Canada will use $800,000 over five years to develop and implement a Ship Waste Reduction Strategy.

This strategy will further prevent marine pollution from ships. This government is working to clean up our oceans.

That's why we've increased the penalties for polluting. And it gives Marine Safety Inspectors, who deal with pollution issues, more tools to enforce regulations.

We're sending a message to polluters – it's time to clean up your act. We're going to increase penalties and sanctions. We're going to use the courts.

We're going to make our oceans and our waterways cleaner.

Thank you.