By Denis Carmel
In a recent Canadian Transportation Agency Notice of Coasting Trade License Application, we learned that IT International Telecom Canada, an international company specializing in submarine cable installation and maintenance, applied for a coasting trade waiver in the coastal waters of Canada to install a new subsea fibre communication cable named “Sunoque III” between Sept-Îles and Sainte-Anne-des-Monts.
The cable will be approximately 130 kms long, and the work has to be performed between April 15, 2022 and April 30, 2022, by the ship IT Intrepid (pictured above) for Telus, Hydro-Québec, and Bell Canada.
Since 2013, IT Telecom has obtained such a waiver for the vessel 13 times without any objection from other Canadian shipowners, so it is quite certain the waiver will be granted in time.
Sunoque I, went from Point-au-Père to Baie-Comeau, and Sunoque II, from Le Bic to Forrestville.
What triggered this story was a recent tweet by Bram Abramson, which also referenced a 2014 Supreme Court decision, Peracomo Inc. v Telus concerning the law of marine insurance, which had international impact.
It concerns a fisherman who cut the Sunoque I cable with an electrical saw, not once but twice, believing it was not in use. To quote the Federal Court judge: “Réal Vallée is a good man; a decent man; an honest man—a fisherman. However he did a very stupid thing.”
Photo borrowed from IT International Telecom’s website.
