What started with the removal of a few rusted boats from the bay adjacent to the Oak Bay Marina on Monday could be a small start in addressing the jurisdictional Ping Pong that has long stymied municipalities trying to deal with derelict boats.
The joint operation involving Oak Bay police, RCMP and Transport Canada targeted abandoned boats and illegal moorings in what could serve as an example for coastal communities struggling to deal with problem vessels and looking for help in picking up the bill.
Despite strong winds on Monday, an RCMP marine vessel and a barge carrying a backhoe scooped up illegal mooring buoys and towed two abandoned vessels to shore — a half-submerged five-metre motorboat and a slightly larger red sailboat.
Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen said the project began after a meeting with Minister of Natural Resources Steve Thomson and Transport Canada officials at the Union of B.C. Municipalities conference last fall.
“You need these kind of partnerships to deal with the problem,” Jensen said. “This might well be the model for other communities to use in dealing with [derelict boats].”
Several months ago, the RCMP marine unit and Oak Bay police started tagging notices on dozens of vessels and buoys, warning the owners to remove the obstructions or the police would do it for them.
Oak Bay police spokesman Const. Rick Anthony said dozens of people complied but there were about 10 boats that remained in the water.
Illegal vessels and moorings pose a navigational hazard to other boats and could cause an environmental hazard if the fuels leaks or if they wash up on shore, Anthony said.
In April 2013, a derelict pontoon boat that washed ashore in Cadboro Bay became a party spot for area teens, which led to a fire that almost spread up the shoreline to million-dollar oceanfront homes.
In Ladysmith, an August 2013 fire on an abandoned boat near Transfer Beach threatened to spread to nearby boats. Firefighters pushed it farther out to sea to burn and sink.
Victoria, Cowichan Bay and Nanaimo have struggled with the issue of what to do with derelict boats and illegal liveaboards.
Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin said the city is working with the provincial government to try to find a solution to liveaboards in the Selkirk Waterway, a jurisdictional tangle as the waterway is managed by provincial, federal and municipal governments.
“The issue of boats and moorages, the issue of pollution from these boats and abandoned boats is one that’s been so important for every oceanfront community on Vancouver Island,” Fortin said.
Sheila Malcolmson, chairwoman of the Island Trust Council, said many municipalities are given the “runaround” from different levels of government when asking for help in removing problem vessels.
“Local governments are saying, ‘Who do we call?’ We don't necessarily have jurisdiction for boat removal,” Malcolmson said.
Malcolmson said municipalities have been “pleading” for the federal and provincial government to create a “comprehensive and coastal-wide solution.”
She pointed to the Washington state model that uses vessel registration fees to fund a program that has removed hundreds of derelict boats from the waterways.
Transport Canada is the lead agency if a vessel is an obstruction to navigation or poses a threat to the environment, but if the structure is not recognized as a vessel, then it’s in the province’s hands.
Nanaimo-Cowichan MP Jean Crowder said she has put forward a private member’s bill, to be debated in the fall, that would address the problem. The amendment to the Canada Shipping Act would make the Canadian Coast Guard the receiver of derelict boats.
This is a corrected version of an earlier story.
