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Canada Prepares National Plan to Stop Ocean Container Pollution

An Act to amend the Marine Liability Act (national strategy respecting pollution caused by shipping container spills)

Summary

  • Requires the Minister of Transport to develop and implement a national strategy to prevent and address pollution from shipping container spills.
  • Mandates meaningful collaboration with Indigenous organizations in designing the strategy.
  • Orders an independent study with findings and recommendations to be tabled in Parliament, with the strategy responding to those findings.
  • Requires a public implementation plan within one year and annual progress reports thereafter.

Builder Assessment

Neutral

Overall, the bill is predominantly procedural and environmental-risk oriented, with unclear economic upside and potential to add administrative burden. It neither advances core growth levers nor tax, regulatory, or productivity reforms, making alignment with Build Canada's tenets weak.

  • Focused on process (studies, reports) rather than outcomes tied to competitiveness or cost reduction.
  • No clear mechanisms to reduce logistics costs, accelerate permitting, or incentivize private investment/innovation.
  • Potential benefits (supply-chain reliability, avoided damages) are indirect and unspecified.
  • To align better: include performance-based standards that streamline approvals; liability clarity that internalizes costs to polluters without broad compliance burdens; incentives (e.g., accelerated depreciation, tax credits) for spill-prevention tech; risk-based regulatory sandbox; measurable cost and time targets for response; and coordination mechanisms that reduce duplicative federal–provincial processes.

Question Period Cards

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Principles Analysis

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Canada should aim to be the world's most prosperous country.

Could reduce environmental and economic damage from spills, but effects on national wealth are indirect and unspecified.

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Promote economic freedom, ambition, and breaking from bureaucratic inertia (reduce red tape).

Adds planning and reporting requirements that may increase process, though a coherent national strategy could streamline future responses.

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Drive national productivity and global competitiveness.

May lower supply-chain risk and cleanup costs, but potential compliance costs and operational constraints are unknown.

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Grow exports of Canadian products and resources.

Safer, more reliable shipping could support exports, but the bill does not directly expand export capacity or reduce trade frictions.

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Encourage investment, innovation, and resource development.

Could spur innovation in spill-prevention and response technologies, but no explicit incentives or regulatory modernization are included.

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Deliver better public services at lower cost (government efficiency).

Centralized strategy and transparency could improve coordination, yet annual reporting adds administrative load without clear cost targets.

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Reform taxes to incentivize work, risk-taking, and innovation.

No tax measures are addressed.

✗

Focus on large-scale prosperity, not incrementalism.

Narrow, process-oriented focus on a specific environmental risk lacks large-scale economic reforms or growth levers.

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C-215

PartyNDP
StatusOutside the Order of Precedence
Last updatedJun 18, 2025
TopicsClimate and Environment
Parliament45