Transcript
It’s littering, it's not right and that's why the Wrecked, Abandoned, or Hazardous Vessels Act is in place. It's up to us to try and hold them accountable for their inaction of their vessel and for letting them become in this in such a state.
My name is Marc Maillet, I’m a Navigation Protection Program Officer with Transport Canada. We're working with individuals that either place works within a waterway that have an impact on navigation, which is the Canadian Navigable Waters Act side.
And we're also working with coastal communities to deal with things, such as vessels like behind me. That's abandoned, they're dilapidated that have an effect on local economy, the environment. The type of vessels that we come across can vary from 16 foot pleasure crafts to all the way up to 60, 70, 100 foot commercial vessels or fishing vessels as well.
I come from the RCMP originally from my background as an actual investigator. So I did that for ten years and I found that it helped me a lot with, I guess, my detective work. When I come across such a vessel, how to talk to people. I've gathered a lot of interviewing skills.
There's always a story behind each vessel that I come across and just meeting local individuals within the towns and there's always somebody that knows something about how the boat ended up where it did. So, I find that kind of interesting.
One of the reasons as to why one might abandon their boat such as this is essentially it's a cost-effective thing for them, it’s obviously not great for anyone, but it does cost a lot of money. Right. To get rid of a boat such as this and this size, to take it out of the water and bring it to a landfill, it's important for them to understand that owning such a vessel is a big responsibility.
They can be held responsible, right, for their inaction. For me, I enjoy the process of seeing the vessel come out of the waterway in a sense that I can see the actual natural state of the waterway come back. So it's essentially it's littering. So to see it come out is for me is always fulfilling. People are generally happy to see finally something being done after all these years.