Tax ahoy!.Boaters in Canada are set to forking out a new tax to help pay for the recovery of wrecks abandoned in the nation’s lakes and harbours, says Blacklock’s Reporter..Non-boat owning taxpayers should not carry the cost, said staff with the Transportation department..“The proposed regulatory charge would provide a long term source of funds financed by the vessel owners themselves to support measures that address and prevent abandoned, wrecked or hazardous vessels,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a statement..No deadline was fixed to impose the fee..The tax would cost $10 on pleasure boats, $500 on fishing boats and up to $1,000 on larger commercial buyers payable every five years. Proceeds would finance a Vessel Remediation Fund to clear harbours of wrecks..“It is very difficult to identify and locate the owners of many existing vessels in Canadian waters,” the transport department said in a consultation paper.. “As a result it’s been hard for the government to hold these owners responsible.”.Parliament in 2015 mandated a similar $1.80 per tonne charge on oil shippers to finance an $87 million Fund For Railway Accidents Involving Designated Goods. A paid-up $410 million Ship-Source Oil Pollution Fund dates from 1972..The transport department estimated some 550 abandoned barges, freighters, fishing boats and other vessels cluttered harbours..“It’s not fair to put that load on the taxpayer,” then-Transport Minister Marc Garneau said at the time..“If we’re going to do the clean-up, there’s already going to be a load on the taxpayer for some wrecks that have been around for a very long time.”.Transport Canada in a 2015 discussion paper concluded a national cleanup would cost millions..“Even though shipowners are fully liable for these costs when navigation is obstructed or there is an immediate threat to the marine environment, all too often Canadian taxpayers bear the costs,” said the paper..The Canadian Miner, a derelict freighter that ran aground in a protected wilderness area off Cape Breton, N.S. in 2011, cost Nova Scotia taxpayers $14 million to remove the wreck, including thirty tonnes of asbestos.
