🍁 civid v1

Status and purpose

• Bill C-215 was at first reading on June 18, 2025.
• It would amend the Marine Liability Act by adding Part 7.1, requiring the Minister to develop and implement a national strategy addressing pollution caused by shipping container spills.

Strategy and study

• Indigenous organizations must be given a meaningful opportunity to collaborate in developing the strategy.
• The Minister must arrange an independent study of gaps in the current regime, salvage capabilities, pollution prevention and remediation, tracking lost containers, and ship manifest requirements. The study must also evaluate the potential benefits of a fund for compensation and cleanup.
• The study’s findings and recommendations must be tabled in each House of Parliament within the first 15 sitting days after it is completed.
• The strategy must address the study’s findings and recommendations. It must include measures to prevent spills, improve communication with responders, stakeholders and coastal communities, monitor and remove debris, address regulatory gaps, and fund research on plastics in waters and removal techniques.
• It must also include measures to establish a joint spill response task force involving federal and provincial governments, local authorities, Indigenous organizations, commercial fishing organizations and non-governmental organizations.

Reporting and deadlines

• Within one year after the strategy-reporting section comes into force, the Minister must prepare a report setting out the strategy and its implementation schedule. It must be tabled in each House within the first 15 sitting days after completion and published on the Department of Transport website within 30 days after tabling in both Houses.
• Beginning in the year of the second anniversary of the Act’s coming into force, the Minister must report annually on implementation progress and changes to the strategy. The same tabling and publication deadlines apply.

Costs and compensation

• The strategy must include measures to fund research, but the bill text specifies no funding amount.
• The bill requires a study of a possible compensation and cleanup fund; it does not itself establish one.