SoVote

Elizabeth May

Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
Green Party

Saanich—Gulf Islands
British Columbia
Voting Attendance: 61%
Expenses Last Quarter: $201,868.20

Government Page

Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

May/23/24 10:15:06 a.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, it is a great honour to rise today on behalf of many constituents, with a petition directed to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard and to the Parliament assembled. The concern of the petitioners is the very perilous state of the southern resident killer whale population. These killer whales are an endangered population under Canada's Species at Risk Act. Their legally protected critical habitat is located in an area about to be increasingly trafficked with Aframax tankers loaded with dilbit, as a result of the Trans Mountain pipeline, which, lamentably, all Canadians own. The underwater noise and physical disturbance from vessels will affect the ability of the southern resident killer whales to communicate with each other and to survive, feed and reproduce. They could lose more than 50% of their echolocation range when commercial shipping traffic is near. There is a lot more to the petition, but I will summarize to say that the petitioners want Canada to protect our whales as much as Washington state protects theirs. In Washington state, there is a mandatory vessel distance regulation. Recreational vessels and commercial whale-watch vessels must not be closer to southern resident killer whales than 1,000 metres. That should be the standard. The petitioners tell the House and the government that should be the standard in Canada as much as it is in Washington state.

234 words

Context: House Hansard - 144 - Dec/8/22

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Dec/8/22 7:48:16 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to rise virtually in the House this evening. I am in the wonderful city of Montreal for the 15th meeting of the the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. However, I am turning my attention this evening to a question I asked in question period on November 24. The question had a response from the hon. Minister of Transport. This is a complex issue and one that does not come up very often in the House, so forgive me if I step back and set some context before I dive into it. It is a question on the use of the waters of the Salish Sea from as far up as the tip of Vancouver Island to areas near Parksville, Nanaimo, Ladysmith and certainly in and around the five Gulf Islands within Saanich—Gulf Islands. Our waters are being used as free parking lots to handle bulk carriers and freighters that cannot be efficiently unloaded at the Port of Vancouver. This costs everyone money. The grain farmers who want their products shipped in a timely way, the grain sellers who want the product delivered and those buying the product line up at the Port of Vancouver where freighters find that their holds cannot be filled. They are sent away, and they cool their jets and sit in the waters of the Salish Sea in places that Transport Canada has dubbed as anchorages. Under common law, the vessels at sea must be given refuge and safe anchorages at times of storms. This is not during storms. This is routine. It is daily and multiplying. What does this mean? As I pointed out in my question on November 24, it is a loss of quality of life. The constituents of Saanich—Gulf Islands and those throughout the region do not feel consulted. Right now, there is a consultation process taking place, or a public consultation was just disclosed, hosted by the Port of Vancouver. Constituents do not feel consulted; they feel ignored once again, their concerns dismissed. The Port of Vancouver officials informed the public that the use of the Salish Sea for free parking was going to continue and that it was an essential part of the Port of Vancouver's operations. Of course, nobody pays for it, except, again, the grain farmers, the people buying grain, the people selling grain and the residents of Saanich—Gulf Islands, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford and other regions throughout our marine coastal zones. The indigenous nations of this area were never consulted either, and they are angry at the idea that their treaty rights under the Douglas treaties mean so little that the Port of Vancouver and the federal government have never engaged with them about this use of our waters. What else does it mean? It means damage to the southern resident killer whales from the noise of these massive vessels moving and parking in our waters. It means damage to the benthic organisms on the ocean floor, of course, because these being anchorages and not ports, the anchor drops and drags. This is the point I really wanted to raise in the late show tonight: Days after my question in late November, there was yet another incident in Plumper Sound, where a large bulk carrier dragged its anchor and drifted right into a spot where, had there been another freighter parked, they would have collided. We have had 102 incidents in the period from 2015 to 2020. There were 102 times that these large vessels drifted on their anchors and sometimes collided or nearly collided. In other words, it is a large accident waiting to happen. The residents of Saanich—Gulf Islands and the people of this area are absolutely fed up to our teeth with this ignoring of our rights and abuse of our ecosystem.

649 words

Context: House Hansard - 77 - May/30/22

Ms. Elizabeth May

May/30/22 11:58:36 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Chair, with the threat of ocean acidification as a result of the increased atmospheric carbon creating carbonic acid and threatening life in the oceans, is DFO currently measuring pH levels on all of our coastlines to keep track of ocean acidification?

42 words

Context: House Hansard - 77 - May/30/22

Ms. Elizabeth May

May/30/22 11:56:00 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Chair, moving on, I was really pleased to hear the minister say that she recognizes that polystyrene is a real problem of plastic pollution in our coastal areas, but I was disappointed to hear that it sounded like DFO is not interested in getting it out of the ocean. Is DFO working with Environment and Climate Change Canada to improve the regulations currently under review for ocean plastics to put polystyrene's use in the marine and coastal areas on a list so that we avoid getting it into the ocean in the first place?

96 words

All Topics

SoVote

Member of Parliament

Elizabeth May