History of Canadian Coast Guard from 1962-2007

• Establishment
• Expansion
• 1962-2007
• The College Today

On January 26th, 1962, the Canadian Coast Guard officially came into existence when Mr. Leon Balcer, Minister of Transport, addressed the House of Commons and announced that the Department of Transport Fleet of icebreakers, navigation aids vessels and northern supply craft would in the future be known as the Canadian Coast Guard. The change recognized that there was a need for a national civilian marine service to support broad national objectives. It was also a response to growing demands from coastal communities, as well as shipping and fishing interests, for a search and rescue organization with rescue crafts similar to those used by the United States Coast Guard. To emphasize the change, the ships of the Fleet were given a new paint scheme of red and white with a prominent maple leaf on the funnel.

To meet the organization's broader mandate, new ships were constructed. The first additions to the Fleet were search and rescue cutters: offshore and coastal vessels as well as station-based lifeboats. Other major new ships included the icebreaker Louis S. St. Laurent, completed in 1969, still the largest ship in the Canadian Coast Guard. In 1965, in order to provide highly trained officers for the expanding Fleet, the Canadian Coast Guard College was established in Sydney, Nova Scotia. The largely autonomous "agencies" of the Department of Transport were re-organized into five Regions, originally designated as Newfoundland, Maritimes, Laurentian, Central and Western, while a headquarters organization in Ottawa provided central control. Other marine components of Transport Canada - ship inspection, the certification of Masters, Mates and Engineers, the telecommunications and electronics branch and oversight of harbours and pilotage also became part of the Canadian Coast Guard.

Although the essential day-to-day work of the Canadian Coast Guard goes on largely unnoticed by the public, some events have received significant media attention. In 1969, the American supertanker Manhattan made experimental transits of the Northwest Passage. She was escorted by the CCGS John A. MacDonald, for sovereignty as well as for safety reasons, and by a United States Coast Guard icebreaker, while the Royal Canadian Air Force provided airborne ice reconnaissance. The objective was to determine if oil from Alaska's north slope could be shipped to market by sea, but in the end a pipeline was used. After some major tanker spills in Europe, the threat of oil pollution had become a worldwide concern. Canada experienced this in 1970 when the tanker Arrow was wrecked in Chedabucto Bay, Nova Scotia. The lessons learned during the subsequent cleanup resulted not only in new legislation but also in the creation of an emergency measures organization with the necessary equipment. This was used to good effect in 1979 when another tanker, the Kurdistan, broke in two in the Cabot Strait. Canadian Coast Guard expertise in this field has been used to help with the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989 and in Bahrain during the Gulf War in 1991.

In 1990, the latest in a series of studies recommended the consolidation of the Government's civilian-crewed ships under one department, a return to the arrangement in force in the first years of Confederation. The Department of Marine and Fisheries, responsible for all marine matters (except gunboats and other vessels of war) had been created by an Act of Parliament, assented to on May 22nd, 1868. In the ensuing 127 years to 1995, its original functions were not infrequently transferred between various ministries.

By 1979, responsibility for fishery patrol, hydrography and scientific research lay with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). In the post war period the number and size of the fisheries and scientific vessels had been increased under the same influences that had affected the Canadian Coast Guard. Canada's territorial sea had been expanded from three miles from the coast to twelve miles in 1964 and, in 1977, a 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone was established. The DFO's sizeable Fleet included patrol vessels that were needed for the enlarged area and for fishery and oceanographic research ships. Modern scientific vessels included the Baffin and Hudson, two large ice-strengthened hydrographic ships for surveys in the Arctic.

On April 1st, 1995, responsibility for the Canadian Coast Guard was transferred to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, leaving the regulatory functions under Transport Canada. The two Fleets and their personnel were merged and the DFO's grey patrol craft and white research vessels were transformed to Canadian Coast Guard red. Today the Canadian Coast Guard is developing new methods for fulfilling its mandate, which is "to manage Canada's oceans and major waters so that they are clean, safe, productive, secure and accessible; to ensure sustainable use of fisheries resources and to facilitate maritime trade and commerce". In the twenty-first century the Canadian Coast Guard is continuing to develop and employ new technologies and flexible management strategies in fulfilling its responsibilities to provide the nation with the valuable services it has delivered throughout its history.