Ottawa to announce crackdown on boats abandoned on Canadian coasts
HALIFAX — Sunken sailboats, derelict ships and rusted out bulk carriers: The abandoned stuff of Maritime pursuits left to sully the country’s coastline seem as inescapably tied to our oceans as tides and sand.
But Canada’s transport minister is taking aim at the seafaring wreckage he says poses an environmental and navigation risk.
Marc Garneau said Tuesday Ottawa is set to announce a new program that will support the removal of abandoned boats posing a hazard in Canadian waters.
“Sometimes it’s very clearly a navigation hazard,” he told a business audience gathered in a downtown Halifax hotel ballroom. “And sometimes it’s an environmental hazard because quite often they sink and they have residual fuel or other contaminants left in them and at some point in the future we live with the consequences.”