COS Weekly Newsletter - Friday, 10 June 2022

We are pleased to announce that Vida Ramin has recently joined the Chamber's team as the Director, Policy and Regulatory Affairs. Vida has nearly 20 years of public policy, government and regulatory affairs, Indigenous relations and stakeholder engagement experience, gained through roles with federal and provincial government agencies, the resource and telecommunications sectors and a national industry association. Her career has focused on working in multi-stakeholder environments to ensure that economic development occurs in an environmentally sustainable and socially responsible manner. She loves the work she does as it combines personal passion with professional purpose. The Chamber of Shipping’s shared commitment to balancing economic, environmental and social interests is what drew Vida to the role with the organization. Vida is thrilled to be joining the small, but mighty, team at the Chamber and is looking forward to growing, and growing with, the organization.

Green Marine, North America’s leading environmental certification program for the maritime industry released its 2021 Annual Performance Report at its GreenTech conference in Montreal this week. More than 170 ship owners, terminals, ports, shipyards, as well as the Canadian and U.S. Seaway corporations, now voluntarily assess their annual environmental performance beyond regulatory compliance and have it independently verified to be certified Green Marine participants as the program marks its 15th year.

The report finds that overall average rose to 3.0 on the program’s one-to-five scale, a slight improvement from the 2.9 achieved for 2020 reporting. The largest improvement overall was found in terms of waste management, achieving a net increase of 36 levels within the program.  Green Marine President,  David Bolduc, added “We’re also pleased to see that 60% of the membership achieved Level 3 or higher for the greenhouse gas performance indicator. This reflects the increasing number of participants conducting either fleet-wide or port-wide GHG inventories, which is the first major step towards measuring progress towards decarbonization.”

The Port of Québec has added RightShip ratings to assess the emissions of ships entering its waters and offers discounts on port fees to vessels, dependent on their GHG rating and emission efficiency under its EcoCargo Program.  The RightShip tool provides a transparent method to assess the relative efficiency of vessels and compare a ship’s CO2 emissions relative to peer vessels of a similar size and type, using an A-G scale. RightShip GHG ratings will earn different discounts for ship owners, beginning with a 30% discount for an A rating, 20% for a B rating, and 10% for a C rating. Discounts under the EcoCargo program are based on the highest certification level attained in the Green Marine or RightShip programs.

DP World (Canada) Inc. and ILWU Local 500 reached a tentative agreement shortly after the Union served a 72-hour notice to DP World Canada that would have commenced strike action on Wednesday, June 8th at DP World Vancouver or DP World Fraser Surrey. The tentative agreement, which is subject to ratification by the employees at a later date, is specific to four (4) IT Technicians with DP World Canada recently certified by ILWU 500.

Heritage Harbour is the Vancouver Maritime Museum’s tangible link to the ocean, providing a refuge for 17 vessels that represent decades of maritime history. For almost 40 years, Heritage Harbour has been home to vessels with a strong connection to the history of the West Coast or the Arctic and the VMM uses this as an outdoor exhibition to give the local community a unique opportunity to learn about maritime history.  The VMM is raising funds to support major dock renovations, including replacing the deck and several pilings that will hold up to severe weather systems.  This June, CanadaHelps is running the Great Canadian Giving Challenge, offering charities to win $20,000 with each donation made online to the Vancouver Maritime Museum before the end of the month. Take part today and invest in the future by donating to the Heritage Harbour Fund before the June 30 deadline.

The Honourable Joyce Murray, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard announced the release of Canada’s Oceans Now: Pacific Ecosystems, 2021, the fourth report of the annual ocean series on the current status and trends of marine ecosystems in Canada. The report was prepared by Fisheries and Oceans Canada with contributions from Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Government of British Columbia and the Council of Haida Nation. It was endorsed by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO as a United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development activity.

On April 27, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) launched a pilot online interactive engagement platform: Let’s Talk Federal Regulations. The goal of this platform is to gather input from Canadian businesses, organizations, and individuals on ways to improve/modernize the federal regulatory system and breakdow inter-jurisdictional barriers. The first project is currently seeking input on regulatory cooperation issues and is open until June 27, 2022.  A question on supply chains has beento help explore this topic in more detail.

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has announced the appointment of 25 new members to the Maritime Transportation System National Advisory Committee (MTSNAC). The MTSNAC Charter will advise the Secretary, through the Maritime Administration (MARAD) Administrator, on ways to identify and address impediments hindering the effective use of short sea transportation.  The MTSNAC will ultimately comprise 22 members from public and private entities and 5 senior federal employees from various agencies whose purpose is to guide the Secretary of Transportation on matters relating to US maritime transportation, its integration with other segments of the transportation system, and the viability of the US Merchant Marine.

The United States is lifting its COVID-19 testing requirement for international air travellers entering the country. The mandate will expire Sunday at 12:01 a.m. EDT as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined it is no longer necessary.  The US travel industry had lobbied hard to repeal the testing rule on the grounds it was impacting economic recovery.  While the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is removing the mandate for international air arrivals, cruise industry sources said it's unlikely the CDC will make any change to testing protocols for passenger ships. Currently, every traveller embarking on a cruise from the US — whether vaccinated or not — needs to present a negative COVID test to be allowed onboard. For unvaccinated travellers, there's an added antigen screening at the terminal.

The Federal Maritime Commission approved a settlement agreement reached between its Bureau of Enforcement (BoE) and Hapag-Lloyd AG (Hapag-Lloyd) where the ocean carrier will pay a $2 million civil penalty to address alleged violations related to their detention and demurrage practices. The order approving the settlement agreement follows an April 22, 2022, Initial Decision issued by the Commission’s Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) finding Hapag-Lloyd violated the law by knowingly and willfully failing to establish, observe, and enforce just and reasonable regulations and practices relating to or connected with receiving, handling, storing or delivery property, by unreasonably refusing to waive detention charges, in violation of 46 USC 41102(c).

The United Nations' World Ocean Day on June 8th reminded us of the need to revitalize and take collective action for the Ocean.  This year's campaign focussed on the goal to protect 30% of our lands, waters and ocean by 2030.  The Government of Canada - one of the 90 countries that have already adopted the 30x30 goal - has already protected 14.6 percent of its oceans and is on track to conserve and protect 25 percent of our oceans by 2025.

Guidelines for risk and impact assessment of the discharge water from Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems (EGCS) were approved at the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) 78th session. The guidelines provide information on the recommended methodology for risk and impact assessment that member states should follow when considering local or regional regulations concerning EGCS discharge water.  The guidance also includes best practices for the delivery of EGCS residues to port reception facilities to assist both ship operators and port states in assuring the proper management and disposal of EGCS residues and stored discharge water from EGCS into port reception facilities.

At this week's meeting of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 78), there was insufficient support for the maritime transportation industry's proposal to establish a research and development fund focused on progressing decarbonization of the sector. The International Chamber of Shipping Secretary General expressed the disappointment of the sector in a press release, stating that the industry was "frustrated by short-sighted political manoeuvring which has led to the proposal in effect being killed. The signal this sends means that the financial risk associated with green investment will remain high, slowing down efforts to switch to zero-carbon fuels as soon as possible."

The proposal to establish an International Maritime Research and Development Board (IMRB), to accelerate R&D of zero-carbon technologies and fuels, was jointly submitted to the UN IMO by the shipping industry’s leading trade associations in 2019. This was followed by a comprehensive regulatory proposal in 2020 from 10 governments (including the major maritime nations of Denmark, Greece, Japan and Singapore, as well as Georgia, Liberia, Malta Nigeria, Palau and Switzerland) for a mandatory R&D contribution, to be paid by ships globally, of US$2 per tonne of marine fuel consumed, to an IMO Maritime Research Fund (IMRF). The IMRF would have provided around US$ 5 billion of funding for R&D programmes.

Seapeak LLC  based in Vancouver, BC is one of the world’s largest owner-operators of LNG/ LPG carriers, with 74 vessels (47 LNG and 27 LPG).  The company has been rebranded as Seapeak following the acquisition of Teekay LNG Partners LP by investment vehicles managed by Stonepeak, a leading alternative investment firm. Teekay was established nearly 50 years ago and became a world leader in the LNG tanker market.

The Seapeak Vancouver is an LNG tanker built in 2017 with carrying capacity of 173,000 cbm.