Coast Guard

The Conservatives’ long-time national defence critic, Manitoba MP James Bezan, has been reconfirmed in that role by the party leader Pierre Poilievre. The October 12 “shadow cabinet” lineup also includes Saskatchewan MP Kelly Block, a 24-year parliamentary veteran, as the critic for Public Services & Procurement Canada, while Canadian Coast Guard issues will be handled by freshman Newfoundland & Labrador MP Clifford Small. Michael Chong, an Ontario MP who was briefly a cabinet member as Privy Council President in 2006, is the critic for foreign affairs. [node:read-more:link]

The federal government has approved requests from Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland & Labrador for more assistance in dealing with the aftermath of the storm which ravaged the region a week ago. The Canadian Armed Forces, Canadian Coast Guard and Transport Canada are helping to remove debris and providing aerial imagery and mapping data as well as supporting roadworks. [node:read-more:link]

A strike by at one Canada’s largest tugboat operators, Seaspan ULC, continues to slow vessel movements in British Columbia and is affecting the company’s shipyard operations, which include work on two Royal Canadian Navy supply ships and a Canadian Coast Guard research vessel. [node:read-more:link]

The Canadian Coast Guard commissioned a new station at the remote northern tip of Vancouver Island August 30 to facilitate more efficient responses to marine rescues or environmental emergencies in the ecologically-vulnerable area. The 16,000-square-foot CCG Hardy Bay Base include a drive-on floating dock as well as maintenance and office facilities. [node:read-more:link]

Two new Arctic patrol ships being built for the Canadian Coast Guard by Irving Shipbuilding evidently will cost nearly twice as much as their six Royal Canadian Navy counterparts. Struggling with supply chain issues and inflation, as well as meeting CCG-specific design requirements, Irving has told Parliament that it is “working to quantify those challenges in a revised cost estimate.” The latest estimate is $750 million each compared with about $400 million for the RCN vessels. [node:read-more:link]

Canada is being urged by Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares to resume the search, weather permitting, for 12 crewmembers missing after a 50-metre trawler sank Feb. 15 off Newfoundland. The search, which involved two RCAF aircraft and a Coast Guard vessel, was called off late Feb. 16. Three crewmembers were rescued and the bodies of nine others were found at the site about 460 kilometres east of St. John's. [node:read-more:link]

A slow-moving CCG hovercraft transporting paramedics to one of the B.C. Gulf Islands sustained damage earlier this week when it collided with an anchored sailboat. The unoccupied sailboat, also damaged, evidently was not displaying a masthead light after sunset and did not show up on the hovercraft’s radar. [node:read-more:link]

The Canadian Coast Guard has confirmed that 109 containers fell from a burning cargo vessel during a storm off Vancouver Island last week. The foreign-registered ship’s owners originally estimated that 40 of the 1,000 on-deck containers had been lost but said Oct. 27 that only two are believed to contain dangerous goods. [node:read-more:link]

The Canadian Coast Guard is leading an investigation into a fire aboard a foreign container ship off the B.C. south coast. The blaze initially involved 10 containers of unknown cargo but 40 more fell overboard in choppy seas and the ship was still smoldering today. [node:read-more:link]

The cost of acquiring three used Norwegian icebreakers the government is buying through the Quebec shipyard Chantier Davie has topped $921 million, some 50 per cent higher than the original 2018 estimate. The yard recently received additional payment to continue converting them for Canadian Coast Guard use until new ships are built. [node:read-more:link]

(June 2008) Fourth Report from the Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans calls for more attention to the future role and capability of the Coast Guard. [node:read-more:link]