John Cummins, M.P. Delta-South Richmond

News Release

December 3, 2002

Auditor General Identifies A Crisis in Leadership at the Coast Guard

OTTAWA- "According to the Auditor General the Coast Guard has a crisis in national leadership at headquarters, has failed to enforce the Navigable Waters Protection Act, has lost track of who passed its boating safety test, has put in place navigational aids that don't work, and has backlogs and failures in programs essential to safe navigation in our rivers and coastal waters," said John Cummins, M.P. (Delta-South Richmond).

• The Office of Boating Safety has no record of who has obtained the operator competency card even though all recreational boaters operating a powered craft of less than four metres are legally required to carry the card when boating and can be fined if they do not do so. (2.96)
• The Navigable Waters Protection Act is not being enforced with regard to aquaculture sites. There is a significant backlog in applications and a widespread non-compliance with the aquaculture permit conditions and in some cases, sites have been established before permits were even issued. Instead of ensuring the Act is complied with through active policing, the Coast Guard relies primarily on complaints from the public to ensure compliance. (2.80-81)
• Funds assigned to the Coast Guard are siphoned-off by the Department of Fisheries for fisheries issues: The head of the Coast Guard in each region reports to the regional head of Fisheries who takes funds assigned to the Coast Guard to spend on his priorities. The Maritime Region redirected its already limited resources from its Aids to Navigation Program to other priorities, including fisheries issues. The result has been that buoys that primarily service fishermen were not put in the water until after the start of important fisheries and were not removed from the water before ice formed in the winter, resulting in the loss of buoys. (2.51)
• The Marine Aids Modernization Initiative is in trouble; its navigation aids are unreliable. The reliability of the year-round floating lighted aids to navigation is below the national reliability standard.  (2.45)
• The Canadian Hydrographic Service has a serious backlog in Notices to Mariners that identify navigational risks on waterways. Only 50% of Canada's southern waters and 20 percent of northern waters are surveyed to modern international standards. (2.36)
• Crisis in leadership identified by Auditor General:
  • "This lack of national leadership has had consequences...,"
  • "the consequences of a lack of national leadership in developing important information systems,"
  • "the need for national leadership in the evaluation of emerging technologies," and
  • "Coast Guard headquarters has not been providing the leadership envisaged in the Department's management model." (para 2.43, page 10, page 13, and para 2.47)

Contact: John Cummins, M.P.
(613) 992-2957 or cell (604) 970-0937

The Complete Report from the Auditor General