https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/port-alberni-eyed-for-west-coast-ship-dismantling-recycling-hub-11281016

B.C.’s marine industry has up to 900 aging vessels that will eventually need to be disposed of, and the underused Port Alberni waterfront is being touted as the ideal spot for a recycling hub.

Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun about 5 hours ago

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An old B.C. ferry at the B.C. Ferries Richmond work yard last week. NICK PROCAYLO, PNG 

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As B.C. tries to find ways to boost domestic shipbuilding after B.C. Ferries awarded a major contract to a Chinese shipyard, it’s wrestling with another issue: What to do with aging vessels when they are ready to die.

“It’s the circular economy,” said Alex Rueben, executive director of the Association of B.C. Marine Industries, a group pushing to make the West Coast a hub for ship dismantling and recycling. “We can build ships, but we also have to get rid of them.”

His association estimates there are 900 aging vessels plying B.C. waters — almost 100 of them over 500 tons — that will be in need of scrapping and recycling in the next decade.

There is concern that the aging vessels pose environmental risks, including fuel leaks and exposure to toxic paint.

“The navy, the coast guard, Seaspan, B.C. Ferries, they’ve all got vessels that need to be disposed of,” Rueben said.

The association is part of a working group, led by Courtney-Alberni NDP MP Gord Johns and Mid Island-Pacific Rim MLA Josie Osborne, that has zeroed in on Port Alberni as an ideal spot for the effort.

“The Alberni Valley is uniquely positioned to attract the infrastructure and business investment needed for ship recycling and dry dock facilities,” Johns said, characterizing it as a potential “nation-building” project for Ottawa.

Port Alberni has industrial land on the waterfront that is falling into disuse with the closure of a Western Forest Products sawmill, and has a port authority that wants to redevelop.

It’s not exactly a “blank slate,” said Brodie Guy, the working group’s facilitator, “but there’s an opportunity there within a federally regulated port-authority environment in terms of permitting and zoning.”

Guy, the CEO of the Island Coastal Economic Trust, said the group has the interest of the City of Port Alberni and the Port Alberni Port Authority, and has caught the attention of potential users in B.C. Ferries and marine operator Seaspan.

This summer, B.C. Ferries hired Ontario-based Marine Recycling Corp. to dismantle two of its retired ships, the Bowen Queen and the Powell River Queen, at the federally owned Esquimalt Graving Dock.

But the Esquimalt dock is in heavy use as a repair facility, including for Royal Canadian Navy vessels and cruise ships, and is expensive to use for recycling.

B.C. Ferries supports the idea of a dedicated facility, saying it wants to be “part of the solution, supporting responsible vessel recycling.”

“Choosing a made-in-B.C. solution also helps build long-term recycling capacity that supports local jobs, protects the environment and strengthens the resilience of our coastal economy,” said B.C. Ferries spokesperson Ceilidh Marlow.

B.C. Ferries has up to 14 ships it will need to dispose of, particularly when it starts replacing the oldest of the larger vessels on its main runs with ships it’s having built at a state-owned shipyard in China.

Johns is also pushing the federal government to adopt more stringent ship-recycling standards, similar to those in the European Union ship-recycling regulation, which would be crucial in winning support from First Nations and the wider community.

Johns argued the industry lost a lot of social licence during the controversy over Deep Water Recovery Ltd.’s operations on Union Bay, south of Comox on the east side of Vancouver Island.

The company, which had operated since 2020 dismantling barges and ships on the beach, had its provincial lease cancelled after numerous public complaints and provincial pollution charges.

Deep Water Recovery has appealed pollution abatement orders it received, which it argued were “unduly punitive” while an appeal was in progress.

“We’ve got to get the federal government to create these standards and guidelines and regulations to ensure that communities are going to do it in a safe, responsible way and to get the First Nations and local government on board,” Johns said.

So far, First Nations around Port Alberni said they appreciate the effort to get them involved in the working group.

“Our First Nation doesn’t object to it at this time,” said Ken Watts, elected chief of the Tseshaht First Nation. But, “we have to find out the information, understand the industry a lot better.

“What we have said is it needs to be done to the highest environmental standards,” he said. “It actually needs to exceed standards.”

Watts considers the idea “conceptual” at the moment. He said First Nations representatives will take it to their communities when the proposal is fleshed out more, but they understand the need for ship dismantling, considering the number of aging ships on the coast.

Watts said the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples “is at the core of everything we do. That free, prior and informed consent is needed, especially for something like this.”

Depending on how consultations go, “maybe we actually become partners in these types of projects,” Watts said.