SYDNEY, N.S. - The administrator of a special fund set up to deal with oil spills says it can't be used to remove the wreckage of the MV Miner from the shoals of an island off Cape Breton.
Alfred Popp says in order for the Ship-Source Oil Pollution Fund to be utilized there has to be oil pollution or some threat of oil pollution.
Popp says the fund was originally set up under the Marine Liabilities Act in 1989 and funds are paid out through contributions from the oil industry.
He says he has yet to receive an application from the Canadian Coast Guard, but he expects they will be applying to the fund to recoup the cost of removing 10,000 litres of marine diesel oil from the MV Miner, estimated at about $250,000.
Popp adds the only way to alter the criteria for tapping into the funds would be through changing the legislation.
Sydney-Victoria MP Mark Eyking and Cape Breton-Canso MP Rodger Cuzner have been pressuring Ottawa to access the fund.
