Handover Procedures for Canadian Coast Guard Operations

[ PDF - 64 Kb ]

Introduction

Purpose

The purpose of these procedures is to establish the protocol for the efficient hand off of individual taskings within the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG), from one centre, vessel, office or geographic region to another.

Application

These procedures shall apply to all CCG employees and shall override all existing regional and local policies, directives, standards, procedures and instructions in effect for the handover of mission responsibility.

Responsibilities

Under the Oceans Act, Section 41.1, the Coast Guard is responsible for services for the safe, economical and efficient movement of ships in Canadian waters through the provision of aids to navigation systems and services, marine communications and traffic management services, icebreaking and ice management services, channel maintenance, the marine component of the federal search and rescue program, marine pollution response and the support of departments, boards and agencies of the Government of Canada through the provision of ships, aircraft and other marine services.

It is incumbent upon all CCG employees to collaborate, exchange information and maintain the highest level of situational awareness at all times, to prevent injury, loss of life and property occurring within their areas of responsibility.

Principles

In order to maintain an accurate evaluation of situational awareness between centres, clear and concise communication and the uninterrupted flow of information is required to ensure an effective, coordinated handover of responsibility. When the transfer involves crossing borders of the different area of operations and jurisdiction of the centres, programs and regions every attempt must be made to give advanced notice and ensure every centre is advised prior to transfer of responsibility from one to another.  Each evaluation is dependant on a set of very unique and dynamic criteria, centres, programs, regions and resources must carefully collaborate with information exchanges, including case histories at all times. If the situation is unclear, nothing should preclude the immediate alerting of the SAR system.

The degree of urgency involved and determining priority of response ultimately resides under the Rescue Centre’s authority.

Handover Procedures

The transfer of mission responsibility from one vessel, centre or region to another is a formal event and shall be done officially, with timed and detailed log entries made to record the event.  Transfer is not complete until all responding centres and agencies are made aware of the transfer. This is extremely important where international agencies and border jurisdictions may be involved.

All sailing orders and taskings shall go out under the Superintendent Regional Operations Centre signature with the exception of SAR taskings for SAR incidents only, which shall be issued by a Maritime SAR Mission Co-ordinator in the designated Rescue Centre.

The initial tasking of the resource may be verbal but it must be followed up with a detailed handover message.

Handover Message

When the responsibility for an incident or tasking is transferred from one vessel, program, centre or region to another, the ROC or Rescue Centre will transmit a handover message to the vessel receiving the tasking and copy all other Rescue Centres, ROCs, ICE Centres, MCTS Centres and resources as appropriate. The handover message must contain all relevant case history information. The handover message format is included in appendix A.

Acknowledgement Message

When a vessel receives a handover message transferring a tasking or an incident from another vessel, program, centre or region, the vessel shall transmit an acknowledgement of receipt of the handover to the ROC or Rescue Centre and copy all other Rescue Centres, ROC, ICE Centres, MCTS Centres, Regions and resources as appropriate. The acknowledgement of handover message format is included in appendix B.

Post Incident Debrief

A post incident debrief is recommended when concerns exist regarding using these procedures, to discuss any recommended changes or to resolve any issues that were raised during the incident.

Enquiries

Please direct any enquiries about these guidelines to the Director General, Maritime Services.

Approval

Deputy Commissioner, Operations