Question Period Note: Pachena and Catmanah Lighstations Relocation of Canadian Coast Guard Employees

• The Canadian Coast Guard uses aids to navigation to help mariners confirm their position, stay inside navigable channels, and avoid marine hazards.
• A 2024 risk assessment revealed safety concerns at two lightstations in British Columbia: Carmanah Point and Pachena Point, which are both located close to the slopes on unstable ground. Both lightstations are at increased vulnerability and risk of slope failure due to these soil conditions.
• CCG is committed to ensuring the safety of our personnel.
• That is why the Canadian Coast Guard has made the difficult decision to cease the lightkeeper functions at both the Carmanah Point and Pachena Point lightstations due to these safety risks.
• There will be no impact to mariners who use the lightstations to confirm their position, stay inside navigable channels, and avoid marine hazards. The navigational aid at both sites are fully automated lights that have worked effectively since 2003.

Background
• Traditional lighthouses are a large part of Canada's identity, history, culture, and landscape. The Government of Canada has designated many lighthouses under the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act and transferred them to new owners across Canada. This special status recognizes the historic importance of heritage lighthouses to Canadian communities.
• The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) has a network of 17,000 aids to navigation across Canada, including lightstations, beacons, range lights, and several types of floating buoys. Aids to navigation are designed for and calibrated to deliver on specific operational requirements.
• The Carmanah and Pachena Point lightstations, located on the west coast of Vancouver Island, are staffed with full-time CCG personnel.
• The lightstations at both sites are situated in close proximity to the steep slopes of the shoreline and have undergone a geohazard risk assessment, led by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Real Property (RP). Due to these geohazard assessments done at both sites, as well as recent seismic activities, there are site safety concerns that require immediate action by the Department, including the CCG and DFO RP, to ensure the safety of the full-time, on-site CCG personnel. The impact to the on-site lightkeepers is considered high; however, there is no operational impacts to the aids to navigation function at either site.
• Carmanah Point and Pachena Point lightstations hold cultural and historical interest to the people of British Columbia and Canada, and especially to those who live in the area and hikers using the West Coast Trail. The CCG is working with other departments and stakeholders, who also use the two sites for non-CCG related purposes, to plan next steps. In the meantime, both lightkeepers will be offered positions at other lightstations in B.C. or within the organization.

If pressed on support to mariners:
• We continue to keep mariners safe on the British Columbia coast with more than 3,500 other navigational aids, 15 lifeboat stations and four inshore rescue bases, and five environmental response depots.
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard will continue to consider long-term options for the future of both sites. In the meantime, the lightkeepers from both sites have been relocated to other lightstations in British Columbia and will be offered other positions within the organization.
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard will also continue to evaluate modernizing the delivery of navigational services at lightstation sites and to explore options for the preservation of Heritage lightstations.