Environmental Response

EXERCISES

Pursuant to the Canada Shipping Act, marine pollution incident exercises are mandatory. In order to adequately evaluate the effectiveness of procedures, equipment and resources identified in contingency plans, exercises should be conducted in coordination with ship, oil handling facilities, response organizations and the Canadian Coast Guard. These exercises are realistic simulations of various types of marine pollution incidents.

The Canadian Coast Guard offers the National Marine Spill Response Exercise Program (NEP) that provides principles, guidelines and planning tools to help the response community develop cost effective and realistic exercises. The NEP encourages cooperation amongst response community members, assists in developing measurable, achievable exercises and promotes the sharing of experiences and "lessons learned". It provides a consistent approach for planning, conducting and evaluating exercise, and allows members to share efforts and reduce costs.

The Canadian Coast Guard developed the NEP in cooperation with industry, other government departments and non-government organizations involved with oil spill response.

International Exercises

Canada works with other nations to exercise contingency plans developed cooperatively to ensure efficient response operations. For example, Canada and the United States have a Joint Marine Pollution Contingency Plan that encompasses five area plans. A requirement of these area plans is to exercise them on a regular basis to ensure an appropriate level of response preparedness.