As a Response Organization certified by Transport Canada, Western Canada Marine Response Corporation's (WCMRC) mandate is to ensure that there is a state of preparedness in place and to mitigate the impact when an oil spill occurs. This includes the protection of wildlife, economic and environmental sensitivities, and the safety of both the responders and the public.

Burrard Clean Operations (BCO) is a division of WCMRC, and fulfills the role of field response/operations for the company. It was established in 1976 by the oil industry as a co-op to provide a collective capability to respond to spills in the Burrard Inlet.

In 1995, the Canada Shipping Act was amended to include regulations and standards to protect all navigable waters and placed restrictions on tankers/barges of 150 tonne and greater, on ships 400 tonne and greater, and on oil handling facilities that receive deliveries from the types of vessels included above. When these changes came into effect, WCMRC was formed to respond to spills in the navigable waters of British Columbia.

BCO's customer base (approx. 1,700 members) includes oil handling facilities, barging companies, freighters visiting our ports, ferries, cruise ships, forest industry facilities, the Province, and US vessels travelling through our navigable waters. In the event of a spill, we may be asked to integrate our team into the spill management in a number of ways. This may vary from:

• Training and guiding personnel from the Responsible Party (RP) in selected roles and fill the other Incident Command System organizational requirements as needed.
• Supporting the RP or Government Lead Agency in selected incident management roles and in the on-water recovery.
• Management of all the Incident Command organizational roles on behalf of the RP, allowing them to concentrate on the Incident Commander Role, casualty, financial concerns, community impact, and corporate communications. Where applicable, RP personnel would be incorporated into Incident Command System roles.