TC TSB Investigation Letter to Minister Garneau

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Bowen  Denman  Hornby  Gabriola Galiano  Gambier  Lasqueti  Mayne  North Pender  Salt Spring  Saturna  South Pender  Thetis 
 
200 - 1627 Fort St., Victoria, BC  V8R 1H8 
Telephone  (250) 405-5151    Fax  (250) 405-5155 
Toll Free via Enquiry BC in Vancouver 660-2421.  Elsewhere in BC 
1.800.663.7867 
Email  information@islandstrust.bc.ca 
Web  www.islandstrust.bc.ca 
 
April 24, 2020        File Number: 5020-30 Anchorages 
 
Via Email: marc.garneau@parl.gc.ca 
 
The Honourable Marc Garneau 
Minister of Transport 
330 Sparks Street 
Ottawa ON K1A 0N5 
 
Dear Minister Garneau: 
 
Re: Call for TSB Investigation into March 30
th
 Freighter Collision in Plumper Sound 
 
As Chair of the Islands Trust Council, I wish to express my gratitude for the efforts that you and your federal 
government colleagues have undertaken to help quell the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic here in Canada. 
While I am certain that the pandemic is everyone’s top priority at the moment, I am writing to bring your 
attention to a recent incident that could have led to a catastrophic fuel spill here in the Islands Trust Area. 
 
In the early morning hours of March 30, 2020, high winds caused a 200-metre freighter that was anchored in 
Plumper Sound, British Columbia, to drag its anchor across the ocean floor and collide with another anchored 
freighter. We understand that the collision caused damage, including a hole in one of the vessels’ hulls. To make 
matters worse, the anchor chains of the two vessels became dangerously entangled, severely impairing their 
ability to maneuver in the narrow confines of Plumper Sound. Tugboats were fortunately able to rescue the two 
vessels. Canada narrowly avoided a catastrophic fuel spill at a time when the country was already struggling to 
deal with the pandemic. But it was, yet again, too close a call. Over the last decade, there have been some 
twenty cases of vessels drifting out of their assigned anchorage locations in the Southern Gulf Islands. It is time 
for stronger federal action to ensure that this does not happen again. 
 
Islands Trust Council calls upon the federal government to conduct a comprehensive Transportation Safety 
Board investigation into the March 30
th
 freighter vessel collision in Plumper Sound, British Columbia.   
I’m sure you will agree that we all need to better understand exactly what happened, whether the established 
protocols were followed, and how we can best ensure that this alarming trend does not continue. 
 
In addition, Islands Trust Council reiterates its longstanding request that the federal government take all 
measures possible to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, the use of the 33 commercial freighter anchorage sites 
throughout the Southern Gulf Islands, collectively referred to by Transport Canada as the ‘South Coast of 
British Columbia’. The anchorage sites are located within the traditional and treaty territories of local First 
Nations who have utilized the waters and resources in the

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