The Canadian Auditor General has issued a report to the House of Commons that is highly critical of the Canadian Coast Guard’s efficiency, management practices and ability to protect mariners. An opposition Member of Parliament from Newfoundland is equally critical. But a Newfoundland fishermen’s representative says that the fault lies in inadequate funding for the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard commissioner himself says more funding is needed but his service is performing better than outside perceptions would indicate.
In her December 2002 report, Auditor General Sheila Fraser declared, “I am concerned about the long-standing nature of many of the management issues confronting the Department. They need to be addressed.” The “Department” refers to Fisheries and Oceans, which oversees the Coast Guard. Fraser added, however, “The Department says it has a number of initiatives planned or started that should address our concerns. It’s time to implement them.”
Her audit identified a number of obstacles, including the fact that there are five regional coast guards rather than one integrated national program. National policies, standards and levels of service expectations are out of date. And since 1997, the Department has identified a need to amend the 120-year-old Navigable Waters Protection Act, which does not respond to the demands of modern waterway use.
The audit also stated that DFO must modernize and better manage its navigational support services and boating safety activities. The pressures to modernize include a growing reliance on sophisticated technology by users, a greater diversity of waterway use, ongoing fiscal pressure, international obligations, and demands from industry.
“I am concerned about the long-standing nature of many of the management issues confronting the Department,” said Fraser. “They need to be addressed.”
Another critic is Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament Loyola Hearn, who represents the St. John’s West riding in Newfoundland and who also serves on a Coast Guard oversight committee. Hearn says he’s concerned about the safety of fishermen generally and adds, “Our fishermen have to go farther and farther out in order to make a living, and that means fishing in very rough waters where it’s dangerous.”
Hearn says he’s also concerned that decisions about the Coast Guard are being made in Ottawa, not on the coast. “I question who’s better qualified to make this kind of determination in the light of iceberg threats and the like: the skipper of a boat or someone sitting in an office in Ottawa.”
But Earle McCurdy, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union, says in response to Hearn, “the real issue here is the budget crunch – you can’t be Progressive Conservative or Alliance calling for budget reduction 364 days of the year and then on the 365th wonder why there’s a cutback in Coast Guard services.”
Coast Guard Commissioner John Adams concedes that he’d like to see an increase in his budget but insists that services such as Search and Rescue have not been curtailed. Characterizing Canadian media reports that Coast Guard vessels in Newfoundland were being kept at their berths because of fuel costs as “misleading,” Adams said vessel captains had been told to curtail or end “discretionary steaming.”
He added, “Newfoundland is divided into three zones. We did instruct vessel captains to stay in the center of each zone. The reason for this was so that one of our vessels would not be caught, say, in the northern end of a zone when there’s an emergency in the southern end of the zone.”
Adams added that the Coast Guard auxiliary has also taken on a major share of search and rescue missions “with a 100 percent rate of success.”
That’s not good enough, however, for Hearn.
“This problem goes way beyond fuel,” Hearn said. “It’s a matter of fact that only 25 percent of our [Newfoundland] coast is covered by radar. In this day and age when we’re so concerned about security, that’s not sufficient. Everybody knows what part is covered by radar and what isn’t. I’m telling you if you have a boat, you can land almost anywhere, and nobody knows you’re coming. Theoretically, you’re now required to report 96 hours ahead, but what drug pusher or terrorist is going to call ahead?”
Hearn says he’s also concerned that decisions about the Coast Guard are being made in Ottawa, not on the coast. “I question who’s better qualified to make this kind of determination in the light of iceberg threats and the like: the skipper of a boat or someone sitting in an office in Ottawa. I’ll rely on the skipper, not some bureaucrat.”
Adams counters, “You may not see as many red-and-whites as before, but that’s because the auxiliary, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, has grown by leaps and bounds and it’s involved more and more in search and rescue They’re always there to answer the bell.”
Lighthouses
One section of Fraser’s report that has generated a lot of controversy is a recommendation that the remaining staffed lighthouses, most of them in Newfoundland and Labrador, be automated.
But a Newfoundland lighthouse keeper who is being paid by the federal government to sit at home says the idea is a bad one and that the Auditor General ought to get out into the real world.
Lloyd Lilly of Lewisporte, Newfoundland, has been a keeper for more than 33 years and was stationed at Surgeon’s Cove Head, an isolated light 20 miles north of Lewisporte. “Right now, the station is automated,” he says, “and has been since October. When they [federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which oversees the Coast Guard] did that, they turned a blind eye to everyone. This in spite of the fact that when they held a meeting about it, they couldn’t fit everyone in the meeting hall. And those who couldn’t get in sent in letters.”
More importantly, Lilly says, is the fact that he has assisted a number of mariners during his stint as keeper and that requests for assistance have increased, not decreased, over the past several years.
“We gave them all kinds of information,” he says, “but they just didn’t pay attention.”
In her report Fraser noted: “The Canadian Coast Guard began its program to automate, remove staff, and remotely monitor light stations in 1970. However, it still maintains 51 staffed light stations. Because of a 1998 government decision, the Department staffs 50 light stations in the Newfoundland and Pacific regions, largely for heritage reasons. The other remaining light station, in the Maritimes Region, is staffed for sovereignty purposes.”
Keeping certain stations staffed for reasons of “heritage” and “sovereignty” is where the Coast Guard went wrong, according to Wayne Fagan, spokesman for the Canadian Transport Employees union which represents the light keepers.
“The decision made five years ago was based on political pressure to keep the lights open for heritage reasons,” Fagan says. “The Coast Guard is not in the business of heritage; it’s in the business of saving lives and assisting mariners. At that time, we recommended that they enhance services and enhance training – for search and rescue, new technology, weather watch, ice watch, in other words, to keep an eye on the sea. But the Department went the other way with heritage. So, they made the move to relocate keepers off remote stations to shore stations. But the fact remains that we should be in the business of search and rescue, of risk management.”
Elsewhere in her report, Fraser stated: “In December 1998, the Treasury Board approved $47.6 million in operating funds and $24.5 million in capital funds over five years (1998-99 to 2002-03) to continue staffing light stations in the Newfoundland and Pacific regions. In addition, ongoing operating funding of $12.9 million annually was approved for years after 2002-03. The Treasury Board requested that the Department review the decision to maintain staffing at the light stations after five years.”
Fraser continued: “It is now accepted that staffed light stations are not necessary for maritime safety and navigational efficiency. A 1998 Canadian Coast Guard study found that most industrialized countries were removing staff from light stations, and:
* The United States had removed staff from 474 of 475 light stations since 1990,
* England had removed staff from 68 of 72 light stations,
* Ireland had removed staff from all of its 80 light stations, and
* Australia had removed staff from 102 of its 104 light stations.”
She concluded, “Fisheries and Oceans Canada should develop and implement an overall strategy for the future of its light stations considering maritime safety and heritage objectives.”
As for keeper Lloyd Lilly’s future he says, “They’ll keep paying me until spring and then they’ll decide what to do with me. I suspect they hope I’ll go away somewhere.”