Marine security operational facilities

Learn about the duties and capabilities of Canada’s marine security operations centres and our National Command Centre.

Operations centres

Marine security operations centres contribute to Canada’s national security by providing an integrated government approach to maritime security.

Responsibilities

Centre responsibilities include:

• generating and sharing maritime situational awareness that is:
• timely
• relevant
• accurate
• coherent
• detecting, assessing and responding to maritime security threats that could affect Canada’s:
• safety
• security
• economy
• environment
• providing Canada with comprehensive maritime domain awareness

Canadian Coast Guard personnel support these centres by:

• providing vessel identification and tracking information using:
• automatic identification systems
• long range identification and tracking
• information systems on marine navigation
• using operational knowledge and expertise in maritime domain awareness to support partners
• using the on-water presence of the organization to enhance maritime awareness in Canadian waters

Locations

Canada’s marine security operations centres are located in:

• Halifax, Nova Scotia
• Victoria, British Columbia
• Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

Partners

To assist with maritime security programs, the operations centres have 6 core partners, including:

• the RCMP
• Transport Canada
• the Canadian Coast Guard
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada
• Canada Border Services Agency
• Department of National Defence 

The centres also work with international partners such as the United States Coast Guard and United States Customs and Border Protection.

National Command Centre

The Canadian Coast Guard’s national strategic command centre compiles current and accurate information on:

• marine incidents
• current fleet disposition
• large scale emergencies
• events of interest in the maritime domain

The command centre creates information reports by working directly with internal and external sources, including:

• regional departments
• Coast Guard programs
• other government departments

It then analyses this information and delivers it to internal and external partners as required.

Support for national incident management

The centre supports our National Incident Management Team by providing:

• staff
• expertise
• facilities, including:
• an incident management planning room
• a boardroom with advanced audio visual teleconference capabilities
• an operations room with surge capacity for 2 major incidents and routine operations