A Nova Scotia shipyard paid $520,000 by the federal government to store a “dead” Coast Guard ship also is being sued by the government for negligence because it was refitting the vessel when it was damaged in 2018. The ship fell over when vandals, who remain unidentified, cut support cables. [node:read-more:link]
Two days ahead of an expected federal cabinet shuffle, four ministers confirmed July 24 that they would be stepping down. They include Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, Public Services & Procurement Minister Helena Jaczek and Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett, all from Toronto ridings, and Fisheries & Oceans Minister Joyce Murray of Vancouver, who also is responsible for the Canadian Coast Guard. [node:read-more:link]
Five civilians aboard a U.S. submersible visiting the Titanic wreck 700 kilometres south of Newfoundland were confirmed dead today after debris from “a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber” was found at a depth of 3,800 metres. The day before in Ottawa, the federal government, responding to complaints on social media, defended the use of Canadian military and Coast Guard resources in the multinational search effort [node:read-more:link]
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today that Chantier Davie Canada, based in Lévis, Quebec, has joined the roster of shipyards formally approved for Defence Department and Coast Guard work. The decision evidently was prompted by a decade of CDC lobbying and delivery delays by Seaspan Shipyards of Vancouver and Irving Shipbuilding of Halifax. [node:read-more:link]
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]
The National Shipbuilding Strategy has failed, is continuing to fail, and needs to be scrapped in order to prevent irreparable damage to the Canadian Navy and Coast Guard. An objective evaluation is urgently required. [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 new report from the Parliamentary Budget Office has reignited the political controversy over which shipyard should build the new polar-class icebreakers. [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]
