Oil spill cleanup shouldn’t be
the public’s burden—and in
Canada, it isn’t.
Canadian law requires
polluters to pay 100% of all
oil spill cleanup costs.
Under The Canada Shipping Act, industry is responsible for paying all costs associated with a marine oil spill – this is called the “polluter pays,” framework.
This includes funding the operations of response organizations, like WCMRC, ensuring they are ready to respond to a polluter-caused incident.
Canada’s National Oil Spill Preparedness and Response Regime requires all federally-certified marine response organizations to serve the public using industry funds collected through mandatory membership frameworks.
This ensures response organizations are prepared to respond to an oil spill—at no cost to the public.
WCMRC is the only Transport Canada-certified marine spill response organization on Canada’s West Coast.
Membership fees support WCMRC’s operations and training regime and help us protect sensitive coastal areas—including sensitive ecological, economic and cultural sites—through our Coastal Response Program.
Together with coastal First Nations and other communities, WCMRC uses specialized mapping programs to identify at-risk areas and develop strategies to protect them before a spill occurs.
Learn more the Coastal Response Program and the sensitive coastal resources in your area at the Program’s website.
Industry-funded response organizations like WCMRC are trained and equipped to handle worst-case scenario oil spills.
The cleanup of smaller spills is typically managed by the Canadian Coast Guard with local contractors or First Nations responders. WCMRC is typically activated by the Canadian Coast Guard when an oil spill is larger, or more complex.
Once activated, WCMRC crews will deploy to the incident site, manage the cleanup operation and remain on-site until the cleanup is finished.
In Canada, marine oil spill response is funded by ship owners and oil handling facilities. To legally operate in Canadian waters, all takers of 150 gross tonnes, and all vessels of 400 gross tonnes or greater, must have a shipboard oil pollution emergency plan as well as a binding agreement with a Transport Canada-certified marine response organization to clean up their spilled product if an incident occurs.
Oil handling facilities – or anyone who loads and unloads oil and oil products across a marine dock – must also have an oil pollution emergency plan as well as response equipment on-site during the transfer, plus a binding agreement with a certified response organization.
Membership fees support our day-to-day operations, annual operating costs, preparedness and training as well as protection of sensitive coastal resources. They are also used to complete the requirements set out in our certification process with Transport Canada, which is continuous and renews every three years.
Oil spills are extremely rare. When they do happen, the polluter is always liable for paying for 100% of cleanup costs as well as costs for monitoring, preventative measures, reinstatement measures and third-party damages.
Polluters are required to have liability and compensation insurance. When they reach their maximum threshold, national and international funds are activated to ensure taxpayers do not foot the bill. This is regulated under Canada’s Marine Liability Act and is supported by a multi-tier international regime—regardless of if the oil was carried as cargo or fuel.
Learn more about liability and compensation under the National Oil Spill Preparedness and Response Regime on Transport Canada’s website.
The Canadian Coast Guard has a broad mandate of which oil spill response is one component. When an oil spill happens, WCMRC must be activated by the polluter or the Canadian Coast Guard in order for our crews to respond. If we aren’t activated by the Canadian Coast Guard, it’s because they’ve determined the cleanup is not large enough in scope to require our support.
We do! On average, our crews are activated to respond to 20 marine spills in B.C.’s waters each year.
No. Across Canada, marine response organizations work closely with the Canadian Coast Guard in preparedness, training and response operations. The Canadian Coast Guard is the operational arm of the Government of Canada in marine oil spill incidents in Canadian waters.