Environmental Response

The Canadian Coast Guard Environmental Response program aims to reduce the impact of marine pollution spills on:

public safety
the economy
the environment
culturally significant sites

We oversee the response to spills from ships and unknown sources in Canadian waters.

Emergency planning

To stay prepared for emergency response, we:

maintain a national plan that outlines how to respond to spills
have specialized response teams in each region of Canada
participate in national and international spill response exercises
develop and maintain joint emergency plans with:
- Canadian response partners
- coastal communities
- other nations

Figure 1: Map showing the Canadian Coast Guard’s environmental response facilities and equipment caches located across Canada.

Figure 1: Map showing the CCG’s ER facilities and equipment described below

Text description of Figure 1: Map showing the Canadian Coast Guard’s environmental response facilities and equipment caches located across Canada.

Map of environmental response equipment for Canadian Coast Guard depot sites. The legend shows:

staffed ship facilities in blue
staffed shore facilities in red
unstaffed caches in green
seasonal unstaffed caches in white

Emergency response

We receive all reports of marine pollution in Canadian waters and assess the risk of pollution. We then may:

oversee
coordinate
or conduct

the clean-up activities to ensure appropriate response.

Incident Command System

To conduct these response operations, we use the Incident Command System. This system is recognized internationally and helps us work with all of our partners.

Regional response teams

Our regional response teams:

receive and assess marine pollution reports 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
maintain environmental response facilities and equipment caches
protect natural resources at risk including:
- birds
- clams
- marine mammals
contain and recover pollution
provide spill notifications to response partners and coastal communities
coordinate spill responses amongst response partners and coastal communities

Polluter’s responsibilities

Ships and oil handling facilities must:

report marine pollution immediately to the Coast Guard
implement their pollution emergency plan
use their own resources to clean-up the spill or hire a designated response organization (certified by Transport Canada) to do so on their behalf
pay for the clean-up and damages

We will conduct the clean-up or hire a designated response organization, if:

the polluter is unknown or unable or unwilling to respond
the polluter’s response is insufficient or inappropriate
the spill originates in foreign waters and impacts Canadian waters

Canada follows the “polluter pays” principle. This means the polluter is responsible for all the cost of pollution. If the Coast Guard has to conduct clean-up, we may also recover the cost through the Ship-source Oil Pollution Fund.

Our partners

To ensure that the response is efficient and appropriate, we work with:

the polluter
municipalities
local private companies
Indigenous communities
federal, provincial and territorial agencies
other countries

The Canadian Coast Guard has an agreement with the United States Coast Guard to respond in U.S. waters, if they require our support.

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