Regan moves slowly on marine fees

Geoff Regan, the minister responsible for the Coast Guard, has asked the Arctic Marine Advisory Board to give him a proposal setting out a “business case” stating why Arctic shipping companies should be exempt from paying marine service fees, but the board has refused to do so.

That’s because the marine advisory board is still insisting that the imposition of those fees violates the government’s own policy, established around 1997.

That policy, created when Ottawa first began to charge the fees, states that fees will not apply to the provision of marine services North of 60.

Nearly all marine shipping firms serving Nunavut sail from southern ports to northern destinations.

The marine services board, backed by the Nunavut legislative assembly and a variety of Inuit organizations, has hired an Ottawa lobbyist to pressure the government into exempting northern sealift services from having to pay marine service fees, saying it increases the cost of living for northern consumers.