OTTAWA — NDP MP Sheila Malcolmson says she is disgusted by a Liberal government that quashed her attempt to clean up abandoned ships on Canada’s coasts. Malcolmson is the first MP to use a 14-year-old Parliamentary rule to challenge a procedural committee vote that deemed her private member’s bill on abandoned vessels unvotable because it was too similar to a government bill introduced six months later. With support of the other opposition parties, Malcolmson challenged that decision, which led to a secret-ballot vote among MPs this week. There are an estimated 600 abandoned vessels sitting in harbours and along waterways across the country, some of which will cost more than $1 million to remove. Transport Minister Marc Garneau’s legislation will make it illegal to abandon a boat in Canada and Malcolmson says she supports his bill, but it doesn’t do everything coastal municipalities wanted.

Source: National Post November 30, 2017 16:18 UTC