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Canadian Coast Guard: At a Glance
Saluti primum, auxilio semper
Safety first, service always
[ PDF - 5.4 MB ]
Message from the Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard
From Sea to Sea to Sea
History of the Canadian Coast Guard
Our Mandate Today
Our Supporting Role
Maritime Security
Our College
Our Fleet
Our People
Aids to Navigation
Waterways Management
Icebreaking
Marine Communications and Traffic Services
Search and Rescue
Environmental Response
A Few Words from the Commissioner
As Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, it is my pleasure to introduce the Canadian Coast Guard: At a Glance.
As the federal organization responsible for Canada’s civilian fleet, our important role in exerting Canada’s influence over its oceans and waterways cannot be overstated. Accessible, clean, safe and secure waters and coastlines are part of our heritage. Coast Guard responds to the on-water needs of our citizens and acts as a visible symbol of the Canadian identity from coast to coast to coast.
This booklet provides information on how the Coast Guard delivers these valuable services. Within these pages, you will find information on who we are and what we do.
Like an iceberg, with nine-tenths of its mass below the surface of the water, much of what we do is not visible to the public. In fact, you may be surprised to learn just how involved the Coast Guard is in ensuring the well being of Canada’s maritime environment and industries.
The Coast Guard has come a long way from its humble beginnings, in the 1700s, as a collection of simple lifeboat stations. Today, as a special operating agency of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Coast Guard is a complex, multi-faceted organization that not only provides important, front line programs and services to mariners, but also supports other priorities of the federal government.
Canadians can be justly proud of their Coast Guard. Our men and women are trained and dedicated professionals. Their performance in areas such as search and rescue operations and icebreaking are the envy of the rest of the world.
I hope this booklet will provide you with an opportunity and an interest to learn more about our great organization, and just how important the Coast Guard is to Canada and all Canadians. If you would like to know more about the Coast Guard, please visit our Web site at: www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca.
George Da Pont
Commissioner
Canadian Coast Guard
From Sea to Sea to Sea
Canada has the longest coastline in the world (some 244,000 kilometres), the world’s largest archipelago, inland waterways that stretch 3,700 kilometres from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Lake Superior, and a 3.7 million square-kilometre economic exclusive zone. In addition to its shore-based people, Coast Guard vessels, helicopters and highly trained men and women are on station, on patrol or on standby 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The Coast Guard has the comprehensive and challenging task to protect the marine and freshwater environment, maintain maritime safety, facilitate maritime shipping and commerce and maritime accessibility, as well as support marine scientific excellence and Canada’s federal maritime priorities.
History of the Canadian Coast Guard
At the time of Confederation in 1867, the Department of Marine and Fisheries was created and was responsible for all marine matters, with the exception of gunboats and other vessels of war.
On January 26, 1962, Leon Balcer, the Minister of Transport, rose in the House of Commons to announce that the Department of Transport fleet would in future be known as the Canadian Coast Guard. The establishment of a national civilian marine service was in response to growing demands for a marine service and search and rescue organization.
In 1995, responsibility for the Coast Guard was transferred to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), merging the Coast Guard fleet with DFO patrol craft and research vessels, and creating one civilian fleet.
In 2005, the Coast Guard became a special operating agency (SOA) within Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Becoming an SOA means that the Coast Guard can focus on what it does best – provide essential and valuable services to mariners in Canadian waters in a way that both meets client needs and does so cost effectively.
Our Mandate Today
The Coast Guard’s mandate derives from the Oceans Act, the Canada Shipping Act and the Constitutional Act, 1867.
The Constitutional Act, 1867 gives the federal government exclusive legislative authority over navigation, shipping, beacons, buoys, lighthouses and Sable Island. The Oceans Act and the Canada Shipping Act give the Coast Guard its specific mandate. Parliament has mandated the Coast Guard to play the lead role in ensuring that our waterways are safe and accessible, and to provide services for the economical and efficient movement of ships.
The Coast Guard delivers its mandate through a wide range of activities. These include conducting search and rescue operations, placing and maintaining navigational buoys, providing marine communications and vessel traffic services, icebreaking, waterways management channel maintenance in navigable inland waters such as the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system, ensuring an effective pollution response to all ship-source and mystery-source pollution spills into the marine environment and supporting other government departments, boards and agencies of the federal government.
Our Supporting Role
The Coast Guard is also called on to provide vessels so that other organizations can carry out important work in the marine and fresh water environment. For example, Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Conservation and Protection officers use Coast Guard vessels to patrol fishing areas and conduct inspections at sea to ensure compliance with all of the regulations designed to ensure orderly fisheries. The Coast Guard also supports marine science research, done by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, related to the conservation, protection and sustainable development of fisheries resources, fish habitat management, and navigational charts, as well as studying the influences of climate variations and aquatic ecosystems. Thanks to Coast Guard ships, the Canadian Hydrographic Service is able to produce marine charts. Natural Resources Canada conducts marine geology from Coast Guard ships and Environment Canada acquires much of its meteorological information from weather buoys launched from Coast Guard vessels. The study of ocean climate is also the focus of a growing number of researchers.
Maritime Security
The Canadian Coast Guard’s involvement in maritime security is based on its obligation under the Oceans Act to support departments and agencies mandated to provide security and enforcement within Canada. These organizations include the Department of National Defence (DND), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canada Border Services Agency, Transport Canada and Public Safety Canada.
Coast Guard’s primary role is to provide vessels to help in developing an awareness of possible maritime threats to Canada’s security, provide on-water enforcement and responsiveness and to safeguard the safety and security of Canadians.
The Coast Guard participates in the coastal and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway Marine Security Operations Centres, led by DND and the RCMP respectively, to help detect, assess and support the response to any threat to marine security that could affect the safety, security, environment or economy of Canada.
In addition, the Coast Guard is involved with the RCMP in the Maritime Security Enforcement Team program. Together, they deliver a dedicated security enforcement capacity on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system.
The Coast Guard is also contributing to enhanced maritime security through an Automatic Identification System (AIS) and by assisting in the development of a Long Range Identification and Tracking system (LRIT).
The AIS enhances surveillance and identification of vessels approaching and operating up to 40 nautical miles from Canada’s shores as well as in the Great Lakes, while the LRIT system is designed to collect basic information on Canadian flag vessels, international vessels destined for Canadian ports and vessels passing near Canadian waters up to 1000 nautical miles.
Our College
The Canadian Coast Guard College is the training ‘Centre of Excellence’ for the Coast Guard. The College both develops and delivers a broad range high-quality, academic, operational and technical training. It plays an active role in operational research and development.
The College is the venue for the Coast Guard Officer Training Program, a four-year degree program in Navigation or Marine Engineering. The College also provides the training for Marine Communications and Traffic Services (MCTS) officers. In addition, the College provides professional development training for Coast Guard employees working in the fields of MCTS, Search and Rescue, Oil Spill Management, and Electronic Equipment Installation and Maintenance.
The campus, located in Sydney, Nova Scotia consists of an administrative/academic complex, an on-site student residence, a large sports complex, a fully equipped waterfront training facility and an extensive engineering machine shop.
For more information on the Canadian Coast Guard College and its programs, please visit the Web site at www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/College.
Our Fleet
The Canadian Coast Guard Fleet Directorate manages an operationally ready civilian fleet of more than 100 major vessels and over 20 helicopters, as well as numerous small craft operated by over 2,500 sea-going personnel. Collectively, they serve as a visible symbol of the Canadian identity across our five regions.
The Fleet supports Canada and Canadians on four equally important levels: providing Coast Guard services related to aids to navigation, icebreaking, search and rescue, maritime security, pollution response and marine communications and traffic services, supporting Fisheries and Oceans Canada programs by providing vessels and maritime professionals to support the department’s science activities and to help manage and protect resources, supporting non-military activities of other government departments and agencies and serving the broader Canadian interest by responding to federal maritime priorities and natural or man-made emergencies.
Further information about the fleet is available from the Fleet Annual Report which can be found in the Our Fleet section of our Web site at: www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca.
Our People
The Coast Guard has the confidence of Canadians because of the hard work and professionalism of our workforce.
With headquarters in Ottawa, the Coast Guard meets its nation-wide responsibilities across five separate regions – Newfoundland and Labrador, Maritimes, Quebec, Central and Arctic, and Pacific. The Coast Guard College in Sydney, Nova Scotia provides training to Coast Guard employees and also assists in the development of professionally trained staff through its career training program.
As the Coast Guard is a highly operational organization, many of our employees serve a variety of functions 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Over half of our employees work on vessels, with a strong contingent that work in shore-based operations providing marine communications and traffic services, operational support, technical services, instructional services and business management functions.
The Coast Guard relies on a multi-faceted, professional and dedicated workforce to satisfy its objective of safe and accessible waterways. Our 4,500 people across Canada represent a diversity of professions, including ships’ crews, ships’ officers, Marine Communication and Traffic Services officers, Environmental Response specialists, engineers, electronic technologists, lightkeepers, lockmasters, Search and Rescue coordinators, managers, program officers, support and administrative staff…to name but a few.
Aids to Navigation
The Coast Guard Aids to Navigation program involves the provision, operation and maintenance of more than 17,000 marine aids to navigation, including fixed and floating aids and two electronic systems: Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) and Long Range Navigation (Loran-C). These electronic systems allow mariners equipped with the proper equipment to establish their position while out on the water.
A variety of marine aids to navigation make up our fixed and floating aids service: lighthouses, radio beacons, lights, small, medium and large buoys, fog horns, radar beacons (racons) and reflectors.
The Aids to Navigation program also provides a Notices to Mariners (NOTMAR) service, 24 hours a day, seven days a week to all Canadians, offering advisories to ensure mariners, fish harvesters, recreational boaters and the marine community at large receive safety information to maintain their navigational charts and publications in order to ensure safe navigation throughout Canada’s waterways.
Waterways Management
The Canadian Coast Guard’s Waterways Management program helps to ensure safe and efficient navigation, supports protection of the marine environment, and facilitates marine trade and commerce.
Its core activities include providing channel design guidelines and expertise to help ensure that ship channel design, maintenance and use is safe, efficient and environmentally sound, promoting compliance with minimum safe practices, maintaining the international shipping channels in the Great Lakes system, and managing the maintenance of the St. Lawrence ship channel. They also include providing channel safety information to users, operating and/or maintaining channel marine structures (river control structures, harbour breakwaters, ice control structures), operating the Canso Canal, and supporting the International Joint Commission in controlling levels and flows in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system.
Waterways Management’s entire suite of services is aimed at reducing the number and severity of marine incidents, and promoting the protection of life, property and the environment. In doing so, Coast Guard delivers a direct economic benefit to the marine shipping industry and the public.
Icebreaking
Canada has more ice on its oceans and lakes than any other nation in the world. Winters are long and hard, with sea ice covering the Great Lakes and the waters of eastern Canada from December to late April. Two-metre-thick ice, six-metre-high ridges as well as icebergs are common and pose challenges and dangers to shipping both in the south of the country and in the Arctic during the short summer navigation season. Moreover, if ignored, ice jams in the St. Lawrence River can lead to major flooding in low-lying areas.
Our icebreaking services ensure that marine navigation through and around ice-covered Canadian waters is safe and timely, thus benefiting industry and communities.
Those services include providing ice information and ice routing advice to the marine shipping industry, as well as conducting escorts through ice where needed. The icebreaking service also breaks up and clears the ice from harbours, port approaches and wharves not only to allow ongoing commercial access, but also to ensure that fishing can commence as the seasons open.
The Canadian Arctic is vast and harsh - and an important part of Canada. A federal marine presence has been maintained there since 1904. Each summer, Coast Guard icebreakers can be found operating there in the short navigation season (late June to early November) escorting ships, delivering cargo and fuel as well as carrying out important science, oceanographic and hydrographic missions. Many coastal northern communities rely on Coast Guard icebreakers to escort the resupply ships that deliver essential food, fuel and other cargo.
On the international front, Canada and the United States have a shared interest in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River; for this reason, the Canadian and the U.S. Coast Guard have established a joint agreement to coordinate icebreaking in these waters.
Marine Communications and Traffic Services (MCTS)
Coast Guard’s MCTS program delivers radio communications and vessel traffic services to the marine community and the public at large.
MCTS officers ensure prompt responses to distress calls, broadcast maritime safety information such as meteorological and navigational warnings, screen vessels entering Canadian waters, as well as obtain enhanced information on vessel transits for maritime security awareness, regulate vessel traffic movement to ensure safe and orderly flow of marine traffic, transmit messages related to safety and provide marine information in support of other government departments and agencies and the marine industry.
This service is delivered through a network of more than 20 MCTS Centres across Canada staffed by highly trained officers who provide service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Search and Rescue
The Search and Rescue service in the Coast Guard is an integral part of the federal search and rescue program. This program is led by the Minister of National Defence and is a cooperative effort by all levels of government and supported by volunteer organizations. Coast Guard’s search and rescue role is to lead, deliver and maintain preparedness for the maritime component of the search and rescue program.
Three rescue coordination centres, staffed jointly by Coast Guard and National Defence, and two sub-centres staffed by Coast Guard coordinate all responses to maritime search and rescue incidents within our area of responsibility. Over 40 rescue stations strategically located across Canada form the backbone of this response. The Coast Guard is also supported largely in this task by the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary. The rescue centres and stations are staffed by highly trained search and rescue coordinators and crews who remain on alert 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The combined efforts of all organizations involved in the federal search and rescue program result in saving 97% of the lives at risk – one of the best records in the world.
Environmental Response
The Coast Guard is responsible for ensuring clean up of all ship-source and mystery spills into the marine environment in waters under Canadian jurisdiction.
Canadian law places the onus for clean up on the polluter. The Coast Guard’s role is to advise the polluter of its responsibilities and, once satisfied with the polluter’s plans for clean up, the Coast Guard assumes a monitoring role, and provides advice and guidance on the clean up. If the polluter is unknown, unwilling or unable to comply, the Coast Guard will assume the overall management of the clean-up operation. However, this does not lessen the polluter’s responsibility and/or liability for the environmental impact.
Through legislation, the Coast Guard can seek compensation for reasonable costs and/or damages incurred when managing or monitoring the response to an incident.
Being prepared for such incidents is the cornerstone of effective and efficient operations and is critically important. For this reason, treaties have been signed with our neighbours and we participate in a variety of exercises with our partners and stakeholders to test and maintain our readiness to respond to pollution incidents. Exercises are held here in Canada, with the United States, France, Denmark and internationally.
