Denise Savoie

IN THE NEWS: Cruise ship dumping questioned; Port of Nanaimo CEO says the ships are not polluting the Nanaimo Harbour

The Daily News (Nanaimo)
By Valerie Wilson
Two British Columbia NDP MPs say they support environmentalists and concerned citizens dismayed with new federal guidelines around discharge by cruise ships.
Denise Savoie of Victoria and Peter Julian of Burnaby -- New Westminster, called the federal regulations "weak" and said that they allow cruise ships to continue polluting B.C. waters.
They will be meeting in Vancouver today with Ross Klein, a professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland specializing in the cruise ship industry, in the campaign for strengthened cruise ship pollution regulations.
"In 2006, the cruise ship Mercury was caught having dumped over 500,000 gallons of wastewater into U.S. and Canadian waters -- they paid $100,000 in fines to the U.S. and nothing to Canada," said Savoie.
"Our federal government is willingly powerless to effectively protect our treasured oceans."
Savoie said the regulations have "large gaps," for example, grey water isn't defined and they say little about monitoring the industry.
"The regulations seem to be really behind the times," she said in a telephone interview.
Celebrity Cruise Lines' Mercury is a frequent caller on the Port on Nanaimo. It will visit 13 times this fall.
In April, just prior to the mandatory regulations and fines taking effect, port CEO Bill Mills said cruise ships that come to the city are not polluting Nanaimo's harbour.
He also said he thinks most, if not all, large cruise lines will be fully compliant with the regulations.
Savoie said that it is not just the cruise industry that is contributing to ocean pollution.
But if cruise ships are already following the rules, then the industry should have no problem with stricter regulations or with monitoring programs.
If the Port of Nanaimo is looking for $10 million in federal and provincial money toward building a $15-million cruise ship facility, Savoie said that further strengthens the need for more stringent regulations and for compliance.
"It is all the more important, if public money is going to it, that they do follow our regulations and we have a way of monitoring it," she said.
"We just want to ensure it works for our communities."