Question Period Note: The Canadian Coast Guard

What are the roles and responsibilities of the Canadian Coast Guard?

• Throughout its 60-year history, the Canadian Coast Guard has striven to ensure the safety of mariners in Canadian waters and the protection of Canada’s marine environment.
• The Coast Guard supports Canada’s economic growth through the safe and efficient movement of maritime trade.
• The Coast Guard ensures our country’s sovereignty and security, including in the North, through our presence in all Canadian waters.

• The Canadian Coast Guard (Coast Guard) turned 60 on January 26, 2022 and, throughout its rich history, the Coast Guard has remained a symbol of service and safety on the water from coast to coast to coast.
• On an average day, the Coast Guard:
• Coordinates 19 search and rescue incidents;
• Assists 43 people in search and rescue responses;
• Saves 13 lives through on-water and water response;
• Manages 1,100 vessel movements;
• Carries out 11 fisheries patrols;
• Supports 11 scientific surveys;
• Deals with 3 pollution events;
• Surveys 2.5 kilometers of navigation channel bottom.
• The Coast Guard owns and operates the federal government’s civilian fleet which currently consists of 121 vessels ranging from large ice-breakers to smaller air cushion vehicles and 22 helicopters.
• The organisation provides critical maritime services to Canadians over approximately 5.3 million kilometers of ocean and inland waters. Some of these services include:
• Protecting the marine environment from pollution incidents through prevention and response functions;
• Enabling economic growth through ice-breaking operations to facilitate the movement of goods in Canadian waters;
• Ensuring public safety on the water by providing marine communications and traffic services in addition to search and rescue services; and,
• Supporting Canada’s sovereignty and security by establishing a strong federal presence along Canada’s 243,000 kilometers of coastline, the longest of any country in the world.
• The Agency provides direct, front-line services year-round - it is mission-ready 24 hours a day, seven days a week and operates in most weather conditions.
• The Coast Guard is an economic enabler, facilitating the safe and efficient flow of $251 billion in marine trade, the handling of more than 342 million tonnes of critical goods, and supporting tens of thousands of jobs across the country annually. In 2020, marine transportation carried nearly $103 billion (or 20%) of Canada’s exports to world markets and brought $122 billion (or 23%) of Canada’s imports by value. Combined, 21.1% of all Canadian trade is transported by water.
• Our mandate is stated in the Oceans Act and the Canada Shipping Act.
• The Oceans Act gives the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans responsibility for providing:
• aids to navigation
• channel maintenance
• marine search and rescue
• marine pollution response
• icebreaking and ice-management services
• marine communications and traffic management services
• response to wrecks and hazardous or dilapidated ships
• support of other government departments, boards and agencies by providing ships, aircraft and other services
• The Canada Shipping Act gives the Minister powers, responsibilities and obligations concerning:
• aids to navigation
• search and rescue
• pollution response
• vessel traffic services
• In addition, the Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act, which came into force on July 30, 2019, gives Coast Guard new authorities and provides strict liability to hold vessels owners accountable, and to ensure hazards posed by vessels in Canadian waters are appropriately addressed.
• Coast Guard has a broad footprint and a presence across the country, including the newly created Arctic Region which is making strides to advance reconciliation, partnerships and collaboration with Inuit, First Nation and Métis Nation organizations and governments, provinces and territories and other partners.

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