Question Period Note: Marine Medicals

Marine Medical Certificate Processing

• Transport Canada is committed to the promotion of a safe and secure, efficient, and environmentally responsible marine transportation system in Canada.
• The Department is also committed to meeting its service standard in the delivery of marine medical certificates and is actively working towards modernizing the Marine Medical Program.
• On average, 16,000 to 18,000 marine medical files are processed annually.

If Pressed

• Transport Canada is taking steps to modernize marine safety and security in Canada, which includes the digitalization of current seafarer files and certificates.This will help reduce the time required to review and process requests, as well as improve the delivery time of issuing certificates.
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• Under the Marine Personnel Regulations, a marine medical certificate applicant first applies to obtain or renew a provisional certificate from a Ministerially-designated Marine Medical Examiner.
• The Marine Medical Examiner conducts a medical assessment on a seafarer, and issues a provisional certificate that is valid up to 6 months. The provisional certificate is then reviewed by TC’s Marine Medical Unit and a certificate is issued to the seafarer.
• A certificate issued by TC’s Marine Medical Unit is categorized as either “fit” or “fit with limitations”, or the seafarer to be deemed “unfit”. Seafarers employed on vessels are required to always have the original documents, either valid or provisional certificate, in their possession.
• TC is in the initial stages of a major modernization project, which includes the digitalization of approximately 60,000 seafarer paper files and the adoption of digital solutions to facilitate the issuance of certificates by Marine Medical Examiners. This will give Marine Medical Examiners full access to the medical records of seafarers held by TC, and enable them to submit reports electronically.
• The Seafarer Services App, a new workload management system, was released in Fall 2021 as a part of this modernization. This is being implemented in phases and will continuously be improved based on user feedback. The app will improve the efficiency of reviewing and processing certificates.
• As a part of the modernization, a pilot project was implemented the week of September 26, 2022. This allows an Marine Medical Examiner to complete an electronic Marine Medical Exam Report and send digitally to TC. This reduces the back and forth between Marine Medical Examiners, applicants and TC, and improves the quality of the data.

Location: National