A promised “world class” federal oil tanker safety system lacked the appropriate financial and human resources, according to a Department of Transport report. The nine-year-old, $394.8 million program became mired in paperwork, the auditors wrote..“In general, there were frequent difficulties in identifying precise outputs, outcomes and indicators at the program design stage,” said a department report titled Horizontal Evaluation Of The World Class Tanker Safety System: Lessons Learned. “There was a lack of clarity.”.Reviewers found there were “insufficient new financial and human resources,” despite millions of dollars budgeted for tanker spill preparedness..“Numerous delays were encountered, including difficulties accessing funding, issues with procurement and contract design and long staffing processes,” said the report. “In addition staff time was frequently redirected and strained.”.“The intended results of the World Class Tanker Traffic Safety System were not well understood during program design which ultimately made it difficult to assess program effectiveness,” said the report..According to Blacklock’s Reporter, in 2013, the federal government appointed a three-member tanker safety expert panel, the first in 30 years, and budgeted millions to create “a world class regime for the prevention of and preparedness and response to ship source oil spills,” auditors noted. The program was overtaken by a 2016 Oceans Protection Plan budgeted at $1.5 billion that similarly failed successive audits..Canada’s last major tanker spill occurred in 1970 in Nova Scotia’s Chedabucto Bay. The Imperial Oil vessel Arrow ran aground, fouling 300 kilometres of coastline with 12 million litres of oil. The disaster prompted the creation of the federal Ship-Source Oil Pollution Fund financed by a shippers’ levy..Smaller subsequent spills prompted repeated federal attempts to modernize a national program. In 2015, the grain carrier Marathassa dumped 2,700 litres of fuel oil in Vancouver’s English Bay. In 2016, the tug Nathan E. Stewart ran aground in Seaforth Channel near Bella Bella, B.C. spilling 109,792 litres of fuel..A judge in the Nathan E. Stewart case in 2019 levied a $2.9 million fine for breach of the Pilotage Act, federal Fisheries Act and the Migratory Birds Convention Act. “There was actual harm,” wrote Judge Brent Hoy of B.C. Provincial Court. “The risk of harm still exists.”.The tug’s operator, Kirby Offshore Marine Operating LLC of Houston, also paid $3.6 million to the Heiltsuk First Nation, another $1.9 million in compensation to the Canadian Coast Guard, and $410,000 to the Government of British Columbia..“Disasters like the Nathan E. Stewart show we need better regulation,” then-New Democrat MP Sheila Malcolmson (Nanaimo-Ladysmith, B.C.) told a 2019 hearing of the House of Commons transport committee. Federal programs “did not do anything to prevent the kind of disaster we saw,” said Malcolmson..Matthew Horwood is an Ottawa Parliamentary reporter for the Western Standard
A promised “world class” federal oil tanker safety system lacked the appropriate financial and human resources, according to a Department of Transport report. The nine-year-old, $394.8 million program became mired in paperwork, the auditors wrote..“In general, there were frequent difficulties in identifying precise outputs, outcomes and indicators at the program design stage,” said a department report titled Horizontal Evaluation Of The World Class Tanker Safety System: Lessons Learned. “There was a lack of clarity.”.Reviewers found there were “insufficient new financial and human resources,” despite millions of dollars budgeted for tanker spill preparedness..“Numerous delays were encountered, including difficulties accessing funding, issues with procurement and contract design and long staffing processes,” said the report. “In addition staff time was frequently redirected and strained.”.“The intended results of the World Class Tanker Traffic Safety System were not well understood during program design which ultimately made it difficult to assess program effectiveness,” said the report..According to Blacklock’s Reporter, in 2013, the federal government appointed a three-member tanker safety expert panel, the first in 30 years, and budgeted millions to create “a world class regime for the prevention of and preparedness and response to ship source oil spills,” auditors noted. The program was overtaken by a 2016 Oceans Protection Plan budgeted at $1.5 billion that similarly failed successive audits..Canada’s last major tanker spill occurred in 1970 in Nova Scotia’s Chedabucto Bay. The Imperial Oil vessel Arrow ran aground, fouling 300 kilometres of coastline with 12 million litres of oil. The disaster prompted the creation of the federal Ship-Source Oil Pollution Fund financed by a shippers’ levy..Smaller subsequent spills prompted repeated federal attempts to modernize a national program. In 2015, the grain carrier Marathassa dumped 2,700 litres of fuel oil in Vancouver’s English Bay. In 2016, the tug Nathan E. Stewart ran aground in Seaforth Channel near Bella Bella, B.C. spilling 109,792 litres of fuel..A judge in the Nathan E. Stewart case in 2019 levied a $2.9 million fine for breach of the Pilotage Act, federal Fisheries Act and the Migratory Birds Convention Act. “There was actual harm,” wrote Judge Brent Hoy of B.C. Provincial Court. “The risk of harm still exists.”.The tug’s operator, Kirby Offshore Marine Operating LLC of Houston, also paid $3.6 million to the Heiltsuk First Nation, another $1.9 million in compensation to the Canadian Coast Guard, and $410,000 to the Government of British Columbia..“Disasters like the Nathan E. Stewart show we need better regulation,” then-New Democrat MP Sheila Malcolmson (Nanaimo-Ladysmith, B.C.) told a 2019 hearing of the House of Commons transport committee. Federal programs “did not do anything to prevent the kind of disaster we saw,” said Malcolmson..Matthew Horwood is an Ottawa Parliamentary reporter for the Western Standard
