On November 1, 2022 I asked about efforts towards Hurricane Fiona Shoreline Clean-up on the north shore of PEI. I wanted to make ensure clean-up would be done in an environmentally sensitive way. Also I wanted to find out if clean-up would be done on private land.
Read the full transcript in the PDF file: Hansard-1 November 2022 page 26 of 61. Also see text of the debate below:
Speaker: The hon. Member from Rustico-Emerald.
Mr. Trivers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Along the North Shore of Prince Edward Island, we were hit really hard by Fiona, in particular, and across the shoreline, there is a lot of debris. We’re not talking small debris. These are not a few fishing buoys and a couple of nets. In places like the Hebrides, or off Grand Pere Point Road up in Cymbria, we’re talking about appliances, we’re talking about propane tanks, we’re talking about whole houses that have been moved. There’s been a lot of talk about a shoreline cleanup program, but I can’t find any details about it.
Shoreline cleanup program
Question to fisheries and communities: Is there a web page, a phone number, a text number, anywhere that we can find out more information about this shoreline cleanup program?
Speaker: The hon. Minister of Fisheries and Communities.
Mr. Fox: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, within 72 hours of Fiona hitting, we started working with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and actually had one of their helicopters start shoreline surveying around the province. We’ve also augmented that with – our crews are now out there under Mr. Blair MacDonald. He’s actually working now to identify areas around the province that weren’t cleaned up after Fiona. These details are being put together. We’re encouraging people to contact our department, which is happening from different municipalities and unincorporated areas. We’re working on actually getting the program ready, how we can get people to contact the office, and where is – that are of a sensitive nature that can be cleaned up. Thank you.
Speaker: The hon. Member from Rustico-Emerald.
Mr. Trivers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Winter is coming, and frankly, my constituents are really worried if this cleanup doesn’t happen before winter hits, it’s important for a number of reasons, especially environmental reasons. Speaking of the environment, this is a really tricky area along the shoreline. In some cases, to actually clean up the debris that’s there, large debris, is going to require heavy equipment, and it’s going into environmentally sensitive areas.
Cleanup and environmental sensitivity
I want to know, again, to the Minister of Fisheries and Communities: Are you working with the department of environment to make sure that this cleanup can happen in a timely fashion but also with the proper environmental sensitivity?
Speaker: The hon. Minister of Fisheries and Communities.
Mr. Fox: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, last week, I had conversations with the minister of environment, and actually started a week before that, also. We’re identifying these areas; we know the environment is very sensitive and we’re going to be working on, actually, a plan to go out and hire small-base contractors with small pieces of equipment to actually go onto these shorelines and actually clean it up. The problem is winter is coming, and we need to identify these areas now. I’ve also authorized this morning, there’ll be another airplane survey being done by our Province into remote areas to find out and identify areas that we cannot see from the road to make sure that these areas are also cleaned up. Thank you.
Speaker: The hon. Member from Rustico-Emerald.
Mr. Trivers: Mr. Speaker, another challenge with shoreline debris and cleanup is that the jurisdictions definitely come together. You have federal jurisdiction within the water and the provincial jurisdiction, and then you have immediately private land. Like I said, we have whole cottages that have been moved onto private land, in marshes, that need to be cleaned up.
Cleanup for private homeowners
I want to know exactly how this jurisdiction challenge can be handled. Can private landowners that have had major debris come onto their land depend on the government for help in doing the cleanup?
Speaker: The hon. Minister of Fisheries and Communities.
Mr. Fox: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Going onto private land does possess a challenge because of liability reasons and so on, but I can assure the hon. member that we will be working with the landowners. Our crews will be assessing the shoreline, and we also have DFO on side with that to help us out as much as they can, too, with offshore stuff in the water. Thank you.
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