Location: British Columbia and National
Issue/Source: Ship Recycling in Canada, and Union Bay, B.C.
Date: June 2025
Suggested Responses
- The marine transportation industry is vital to the Canadian economy. Ensuring the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships at the end of their life is a shared responsibility.
- Transport Canada is aware of the need for more ship recycling services in Canada in the coming years, as well as access to responsible ship recycling abroad.
- There are no federal laws or regulations that require a specific permit or authorization to engage in ship recycling activities in Canada.
- Ship recycling operations are overseen by various departments and levels of government.
- Transport Canada is currently considering relevant international treaties and approaches being taken in other countries to determine if there are opportunities to improve Canada’s ship recycling framework.
If Pressed
- The Government of Canada is aware of the operation at Union Bay and is taking this issue seriously.
- Transport Canada is responsible for the Canada Navigable Waters Act, which applies to vessels or activites that are impeding navigable waterways, which is not the case here.
- Other government departments have responsibility with respect to potential water quality issues and fish habitat.
- Provinces and territories are responsible for the protection of workers at industrial sites and the management of hazardous waste produced when a ship is recycled.
- So far, Canada has not taken a decision to join the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009, recognizing that doing so would also implicate provinces and territories.
- Canada remains engaged in discussions with other countries on the global regulatory framework for ship recycling, and any implications for ship recycling here in Canada.
Background Information
Ship Recycling
- TC is aware of significant demand for responsible ship recycling in all regions of Canada, particularly on the West Coast. This includes old vessels in the government fleet, abandoned vessels and industry vessels.
- There are no federal laws or regulations that require a specific permit or authorization to engage in ship recycling activities in Canada. Relevant federal authorities are distributed across several departments:
- ECCC administers and enforces the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 including regarding the import and export of hazardous waste (including end-of-life ships) and provisions of the Fisheries Act that govern effluent run-off from land based activities into marine environments. This complements the role of DFO, which is responsible for matters relating to fish and fish habitat.
- Coast Guard may assess marine vessels for pollution under the Canada Shipping Act, 2001, including ships that may be recycled. It also assesses hazards under the Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act.
- TC does not have any authorities to inspect recycling facilities. TC may inspect to ensure that any vessel awaiting recycling is not impeding navigable waterways under the Canada Navigable Waters Act.
- TC has been engaged with its federal counterparts, including Public Services and Procurement Canada, and the government of British Columbia to consider if there is an opportunity for greater federal leadership. In this regard, TC continues to study the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (which will enter into force June 2025) as well as the stricter European regulations for ship recycling.
- To inform this analysis, Transport Canada is developing a discussion paper, which could be released later this year, to solicit views on a range of issues relating to ship recycling.
Union Bay
- Baynes Sound is an ecologically sensitive and important area, which as of 2002 produced about half the shellfish harvested in B.C. The site in question is owned by Union Bay Industries, which previously used it as a log sort. Deep Water Recovery has leased the site since 2020 for the purpose of dismantling vessels. Since this time several vessels have been brought there for dismantling. The local community and K’ómoks First Nation are very concerned about the activities taking place and potential contamination from effluent run-off into the water as well as the magement of hazardous waste.
- The province approved and manages the company's foreshore lease, which covers activities in the water above the low tide mark. The land higher up is privately owned and governed by the land-use rules of the Comox Valley Regional District. The Indigenous land and water rights of the K'ómoks First Nation overlay all of this.
- In February 2024, several federal departments, including TC, received a letter from the BC Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, Nathan Cullen, and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, George Hayman, urging the federal government to take more action to regulate the dismantling and recycling of vessels at the site. The Ministers stated that “the lack of appropriate federal action has put the environment at risk and culminated in the calls for the immediate shutdown of shipbreaking operations at the site”.
- More recently (May 2025), MP Gord Johns, who represents the Union Bay district and has campaigned for better standards for ship recycling in Canada, has reached out to TC to reiterate a request for federal standards on ship recycling. MP Johns also tabled Motion M-68 in 2022, which advocated for a greater federal role in ship recycling standards, and filed a parliamentary petition on the matter at the start of this session.