Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
Fisheries and Oceans
Issue No. 29 - Evidence - April 26, 2018
OTTAWA, Thursday, April 26, 2018
The Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans met this day at 8:42 a.m. to study on Maritime Search and Rescue activities, including current challenges and opportunities.
Senator Marc Gold (Deputy Chair) in the chair.
[English]
The Deputy Chair: Good morning, my name is Marc Gold, deputy chair of the committee. The chair is unable to attend today. Before I give the floor to our witnesses, please let me invite members of the committee to introduce themselves, starting from my left.
Senator Christmas: Dan Christmas, Nova Scotia.
Senator Deacon: Senator Marty Deacon, Ontario.
The Deputy Chair: I do expect we’ll have other members of the committee joining us in due course.
It is a pleasure to welcome you both to this committee. We’re engaged in our ongoing study on marine search and rescue activities, including the current opportunities and challenges. We’re pleased to welcome representatives from the Canadian Coast Guard to discuss the central and Arctic region.
Welcome back Mr. Gregory Lick, Director General, Operations; and welcome to Mr. Peter Garapick, Superintendent, Search and Rescue, Central and Arctic Region.
On behalf of all members of the committee I want to thank you for being here today. I understand that you have some opening remarks, following which members of the committee will be asking you some questions.
Gregory Lick, Director General, Operations, Canadian Coast Guard: Good morning Mr. Chair and committee members.
[Translation]
Thank you for inviting me to further discuss the Canadian Coast Guard’s role within Canada’s search and rescue system.
[English]
I would like to introduce my colleague Mr. Peter Garapick, our expert in search and rescue in the central and Arctic region. Before I begin, I would like to take this opportunity to correct and clarify two statements made during my appearance last week.
First, regarding my response to Senator Manning’s question about search and rescue operations in the North, I did make an error, while depending on my memory, that the inshore rescue boat station in the Arctic will be located in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, and not in Iqaluit. The process of selecting Rankin Inlet involved an engagement process in many communities of the entire Canadian Arctic, and involved northerners in making that decision. This is a significant change for us, one that we have adopted wholeheartedly and one we will continue to evolve. This is an initiative I can expand upon through your questions later.
Second, I would like to clarify my statement on the subject of reported missed calls associated with the Marine Communications and Traffic Services system. Following the consolidation of our MCTS centres, short interruptions with some of our remote sites did occur. Reported missed calls were fully investigated, and the analysis concluded that the Coast Guard communications infrastructure met the required radio coverage and spectrum of the Canadian Coast Guard western region. There are no indications that any missed calls were found to be associated with our MCTS infrastructure and this was substantiated by our partners, including the United States Coast Guard.
[Translation]
Today, my remarks will focus on the services and coverage provided in the Arctic and also touch on how search and rescue operations are organized in the southern waters of Central Canada. The Coast Guard’s central and Arctic region is responsible for a vast geographical area, which covers nearly 3 million square kilometres of waterways.
[English]
This includes our southern waters, which consist of the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River, the seaway, and the northern area of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and our waters to the North, Hudson Bay and the Arctic coast up to Alaska.
In the south, we have 16 search and rescue lifeboat stations, nine within the Great Lakes, two along the St. Lawrence River, and five in the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We have 12 inshore rescue boat stations, six in the Great Lakes and six in the St. Lawrence area.
[Translation]
Marine communication services and search and rescue coordination in the south are provided by: four Marine Communications and Traffic services, or MCTS, centres located in Les Escoumins and Quebec City, as well as Prescott and Sarnia, Ontario; the Trenton Joint Rescue Coordination Centre; and the Maritime Rescue Sub-Centre in Quebec City.
[English]
When we look north, the Coast Guard has a physical presence during the Arctic navigational season, which is open from June to November every year.
[Translation]
Up to seven icebreakers are routinely deployed through the season to provide icebreaking services, Arctic resupply to support remote communities, and to engage in community outreach activities. Our icebreakers are all SAR ready and capable.
[English]
Marine communication services are provided by MCTS Iqaluit from May to the end of December. Search and rescue coordination in the Arctic is covered by JRCC Trenton from Alaska to east of Hall Beach, Nunavut, and JRCC Halifax from that point eastward to the North Atlantic coast.
[Translation]
The Coast Guard has also been investing in Arctic search and rescue operations to address growing marine traffic in the Arctic. Many of these investments stem from the Oceans Protection Plan.
[English]
In 2015, the Coast Guard and Mr. Garapick led a two-year search and rescue project to assess marine risks in the coastal Arctic waters, and to expand the Canadian Coast Guard auxiliary’s presence in the Arctic. As a result of this effort, additional auxiliary units have been added, bringing the total today to 13 units located in various locations across the Arctic, with an additional eight to 10 units to be operational this summer.
[Translation]
We are also increasing and solidifying our partnership with the indigenous communities who possess vast knowledge of their ancestral lands.
[English]
These partnerships afford us the chance to learn at their feet so that we can better serve them and their communities, and to allow the communities to become actively involved in the search and rescue system.
Additionally, we also conduct northern community outreach activities, which have always been extremely valuable, to meet local residents in order to get a sense of their needs and wants, and to hear first-hand any concerns they may have.
[Translation]
We have also launched a four-year community boat pilot project to enable indigenous communities to participate in local marine emergency responsibilities as members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
[English]
The Oceans Protection Plan also supports an increase in the number of employees at all MCTS centres in Canada. This includes one additional seasonal MCTS officer in MCTS Iqaluit.
[Translation]
When it comes to search and rescue, the Canadian Coast Guard is the on-water arm of the federal search and rescue system.
[English]
I would like to give you an example of why I’m so proud of the work we do. In September 2015 — and in fact there are many situations like this across Canada, but this is just one example — in the space of one week, the Coast Guard was called in and saved six overdue hunters in the area surrounding Pangnirtung, Nunavut. Each of them returned safely to a community that celebrated the reunion of families amidst tears of joy and happy faces. Community leaders held an event to celebrate the safe return of their own and invited us to attend, which we were privileged to do.
This is a prime example of what team SAR is all about. All our partners work together and bring families back together. This is what we do every day.
Before I conclude today, I would like to advise the committee that this will be my last appearance at this committee as a member of the Canadian Coast Guard as I will be taking my retirement at the end of the summer. It is really both a sad and a happy day for me.
I would really like to thank personally each member of this committee for all of your important work and for your dedication to the safety and security of Canadians.
[Translation]
That concludes my opening remarks. I would like to thank all members of the committee for the opportunity to speak with you again today.
[English]
Mr. Garapick and I will be happy to take your questions. Thank you.
Senator Fabian Manning (Chair) in the chair.
The Chair: Thank you, Mr. Lick. I’m sure I echo the comments of the committee in wishing you well in your retirement and thanking you for your service to Canada over the past number of years. We wish you all the best. With that, I would like to go to our first questioner, the deputy chair, Senator Gold.
Senator Gold: Let me add my voice to Senator Manning’s. Congratulations on your service and best of luck in the next chapter of your life. Thank you to both of you for being here today.
Over the last long while, we’ve been studying the challenges of search and rescue on our three coasts. As you may know, we’re about to head up North to have a first-hand view and to meet the people who are affected and who participate in search and rescue in at least part of our North. We know there are resource issues — physical resources, human resources and assets.
I’m very interested in the four-year community boat pilot project working with Indigenous communities. Could you expand a bit on that and what you are learning at the feet of the Indigenous communities up North?
Mr. Lick: One of the advantages of having an Arctic expert here with me is I get to share the duties properly with the people who actually do the work in the Arctic.
The community boat project is part of the Oceans Protection Plan to be able to provide to communities in the Arctic resources properly equipped search and rescue assets that will be able to develop those communities into an integral part of the search and rescue system.
The community boats will be well equipped and properly equipped to be both a boat capable of delivering search and rescue — that is, in its hull form, power, and so on — and properly equipped with the equipment aboard. That is, making sure all the safety equipment is aboard and that it’s able to have a pump that’s able to deal with flooding aboard vessels that are in distress.
That is the intent of the community boats initiative, namely, resources being put into the North to help the system.
Peter, is there anything else you would like to add on that particular part?
Peter Garapick, Superintendent, Search and Rescue, Central and Arctic Region, Canadian Coast Guard: I had the chance to travel around the Arctic for two years and I still spend a lot of time up there, going to communities and understanding what it’s like to go out on the water and execute any search and rescue.
We went up there to evaluate if we could get more Coast Guard auxiliary units at the community levels. We determined it’s the right path to take and we’ve been very successful. The biggest constraint, however, is boats. People with boats up there have small ones that are not in the best shape. It’s expensive to keep them in good shape and to have the safety equipment required by regulation, but they know how to operate the boats.
When we were bringing in the Coast Guard auxiliary units, we worked with the communities and said, “Let’s use these boats if they’re the ones you can use for now.” We brought that message back to see if there was anything we could do to find funds to generate good, effective boats in the communities. So we did that. This is year one and applications are in. We look forward to getting boats in the communities and seeing them in communities moving forward. It’s a four-year program, and there will be $1 million each year for this.
Senator Gold: How many boats does that translate into and how many services will be enhanced as a result?
Mr. Garapick: As Greg mentioned, we want to make sure we have an effective boat. One of the most popular boats up there is an aluminum monohull. They’re tough and they’re good. We’re looking at about a 9-metre boat, about 27 feet. Ultimately, with the right power, lights and communications equipment, et cetera, we’re looking at about $187,000 each. You’re looking at 18 to 20 boats out of the $4 million over four years. However, it’s also available to upgrade current boats. For example, there’s a community in Clyde River where they’ve identified a very capable vessel, but it could use new engines or new communication gear. Funds will be there to work with the community to say, “Let’s help you with the boat you have now.”
Senator Coyle: Thank you very much for your presentation, Mr. Lick, and congratulations on your wonderful career. Any idea whether you might join the Coast Guard auxiliary after this?
Mr. Lick: That is definitely one of my thoughts. I think you hear it in my voice when I talk about search and rescue, and Peter as well. When we talk about it, we do so with a lot of emotion and passion. I do tear up a bit when I talk about certain incidents, as a result of those incidents.
When I was sailing, search and rescue was not a big part of my career as an engineer, but the auxiliary has a big part in my heart. It is an area, as I move down to the St. Lawrence, that I will join, absolutely. I’m not sure whether I have decided to become a senator or not, but as I said, the work that you do is incredible. Search and rescue is a big part of our life and our passion.
Senator Coyle: Thank you. I do have two other questions for you. We will check in on you on that one.
The big question that keeps coming up for us — and it will be good for us to get your guidance on this now before we head up to the Arctic region — is coordination. You mentioned earlier that search and rescue coordination in the Arctic is covered by JRCC Trenton. Its’s covered from Alaska just east of Hall Beach, Nunavut, et cetera, and Halifax handles things eastward. That’s an immense region to be handling from a centre that isn’t actually in the Arctic itself.
I’ll ask my first second question. What is your take on whether we need to create another region and have a different control centre servicing the Arctic?
My second question isn’t as big, but I think it’s equally important. You also mention conducting northern community outreach activities which really helps build those relationships, but that obviously helps you set your sights on where things need to be improved or what needs to be done differently. Could you describe what that outreach process entails?
Mr. Lick: I’ll touch on your first question first, senator, and then I will hand it over to Peter for the outreach because he is the outreach person.
As I said in my opening remarks, one of the initiatives that is currently under way within our department is to look at how we deliver services better in the North, but with northerners not only as partners but also as leaders in making decisions about the North. As I mentioned last week, one of the big revolutions in our thinking is that we shouldn’t be bringing southern solutions to the North. The North should absolutely be asking and developing those solutions with our support, but they should be the leaders in developing those solutions.
Right now, the department is in the process of looking at how we do that better. One idea is an Arctic region. Shortly, we will be in the process of looking for a leader that will help us in developing that initiative further. That selection process will likely start very soon, and, certainly, the intent, very strongly, is to have a northerner be that leader. That selection process will evolve, and the leaders of the Arctic will be part of the selection process. That talks a little bit about the Arctic region.
Senator Coyle: When you say the leaders of the Arctic will be part of that selection, who do you mean?
Mr. Lick: The Arctic is, in very many ways, sort of a diaspora of different communities and so on, but there are certainly recognized leaders in there, such as Natan Obed and ITK and so on. There are local community leaders as well. The department will try to get a good variety of people that will help us in that selection process so that the person who is chosen to start this initiative can best represent all areas of the Arctic and not just one particular one.
In terms of looking at search and rescue coordination differently, certainly there is an inherent expertise in JRCC Trenton and JRCC Halifax. Before our SAR mission controllers are allowed to take a control of an incident as a mission controller, they are checked out. They go through a complete evaluation and testing process that ensures that they understand the areas that they will be responsible for. However, that doesn’t mean that local knowledge of particular areas in and around the community isn’t needed. So certainly MCTS Iqaluit, as the intermediary in getting communications from its vessel in distress to a coordination centre, is vitally important, and certainly MCTS Iqaluit has local people in there who know the areas fairly well.
However, again, coming back to your question though, certainly there is the idea of having more northern people involved in the system, but your question is around the coordination aspect. I think that’s an area that has absolute value doing that. How are we going to do it, or how might it evolve into that? It could possibly be people sitting in MCTS Iqaluit, as an example, to support a search and rescue by helping JRCC Trenton or Halifax to understand the local area. That is one option. We are pursuing those options now to better understand, but, at the same time, we want northerners to be part of that decision-making process about what would work best in the North.
On the question of outreach, I’m going to pass it over to Peter.
Mr. Garapick: With outreach, the icebreakers have been in the Arctic doing the work over 40 years as Coast Guard, and, whenever they would pull into a community, the captain and the crew would go and meet people. That might be the first step in outreach, and they have done that right up until today. After the season is over, we get together with the fleet, the captain and mates, and they give presentations of where they went and how they interacted with the communities. They are usually great, entertaining things. Really close-knit communities and close-knit relationships develop between the icebreaker fleet and these communities.
We’re taking that one step further. I know no one likes acronyms, but I call it ACEEP, Arctic Community Engagement and Exercise Program. At the Pre-Arctic Conference, in a few weeks in Montreal, I will be delivering a package to each of the ships, a list of all of the Coast Guard auxiliary units, all of the names of the leaders, the administrator, the contact information, the senior administration officer of each community. It will have everything they need to make the phone call or pass a message saying, “We’re coming to the community. We’d like to do an exercise. It could be on the water. It could be in a classroom on the beach. You could come for a tour of the ship.” We could go into the community as one captain said, and we’d like to get a presentation from them. “Tell us something we don’t know. What can we learn about your needs?” And things like that.
We’ll be doing that whenever the icebreakers travel through the Arctic this summer, but I’ve also just recently confirmed the funding for a small team. You’ve heard that we’ll have an inshore rescue boat operating in Rankin Inlet. That will employ six Inuit youth from across the Arctic, but I also have additional funding to hire two more Inuit youth to build exercise teams. In teams of two, a supervisor and the Inuit students will travel from community to community visiting the Coast Guard Auxiliary units, the new and existing ones, and working with them. So they not only get into the community to do exercising, but they’ll meet the community. It’s all about making people aware of what the Coast Guard can do, the Coast Guard Auxiliary, now that we have this extended family with the Coast Guard Auxiliary in the communities.
Senator Christmas: All the best, Mr. Lick. You mentioned in your opening comments the selection of an inshore rescue boat station at Rankin Inlet rather than Iqaluit. Could you explain why Rankin Inlet?
Mr. Lick: Very much so. In fact, Peter will give a lot of detail about the actual process itself, but I’m going to reiterate the idea that, when we went through this process, certainly a major portion of it is to understand where the particular risks are across the Arctic and where those most vital risks are that we want to provide resources to. That is actually part, as I mentioned last week, of our RAMSARD methodology, which is Risk-Based Analysis of Marine Search and Rescue Delivery. That is a very rigorous process to understand where there are search and rescue risks, to analyze traffic patterns, to analyze what assets are in that area, whether it’s federal assets, maybe provincial assets, maybe local community assets, to deliver that service, and where there are gaps possibly.
So, when Peter and the team went across the Arctic, they were looking at using this methodology to understand where the largest risks were, and that was the main deciding factors in putting an IRB station at Rankin inlet. Maybe Peter can expand on that.
Mr. Garapick: Obviously, we looked at population, boating activity. We looked at the season. When is the ice out? When is the ice in? Where do we get the best bang for the buck? All of those things lined up.
Iqaluit is a pretty busy place, big population, lots of boats. Very treacherous bay, in fact, lots of tides. But one thing was the deciding factor. If you tour around the Arctic a lot and visit, these are all very isolated communities. There are only a handful that are in proximity to another. One candidate was Hall Beach and Igloolik. They are only 40 miles apart. A lot of transient boating back and forth. An IRB unit there could serve both communities.
But, if you look at Rankin, it has Chesterfield Inlet to the North and Whale Cove and Arviat to the South. This is 100 miles. It’s further than most inshore rescue boats go, but we have a larger boat for the Arctic. It’s nine metres, enclosed cabin for heating and protection from the elements. So, with that in mind, we chose Rankin because it can serve possibly four communities. Additionally, mining activity. There are mines going in in Rankin. Lots more cargo ships going in and out. We figured it was just a good area that is growing that we can put the first unit in.
Senator Christmas: Superintendent, you mentioned the six Indigenous students who will be the personnel at the rescue boat station. How will you go about recruiting them, and how will you train them?
Mr. Garapick: As we speak, they’ve just arrived in CFB Trenton, where the Great Lakes holds its IRB training for 16 days. We have been inclusive and brought them from the North to the South, and we’re going to all train together, very comprehensive training.
But I’ll back up for a second to the recruitment. This happened pretty quickly. It was announced in November 2016, and we got moving on it. The first thing we did was some focus groups. I had the luxury, my team and I, of being very familiar with the communities in the Arctic, but we said, “Let’s go out and focus group and say that we have this idea, this inshore rescue boat. This is how it works. Would you be interested? Will it attract interest?”
We learned some things, and one of the first things we learned is that we’d better have the right payscale because we won’t attract anybody if we use a southern payscale. We’ve worked with that.
We also learned that we could go to all of the communities and put posters up and do presentations, but, of course, we were looking for students. They could be at the Arctic College. They could be at what we all call NS, the Nunavut School here in Ottawa, because NS is easier to say sometimes, but we also went to McGill, the CEGEP at McGill. We went to the University of Alberta, where there are large populations of Inuit students.
So the word got out. We had over 84 applications, and we’ve whittled that down and hired six for the IRB and two for the exercise program. As mentioned, I’ll be seeing them later tonight when I go to Trenton to meet them for the first time.
Senator Christmas: What were some of the skills or knowledge or proficiencies you were looking for in these students?
Mr. Garapick: What is interesting with the IRB program right across the country is that you actually don’t have to come with a lot of boating experience. We’ll give you that training. You have the core competencies of reliability, motivation and responsibility and be ready to learn.
We found young people and it’s a mix. Some people are late 20s for the North but we found that right mix of competencies so that we will be able to provide training to them for search and rescue. That’s what we find over the 40 years IRB has existed in this country: You don’t have to be a boater to be a good search and rescue officer in IRB.
Senator Raine: Do you have to be a high school graduate, for example?
Mr. Garapick: Yes, you have to be a student in college or university. It could be the Arctic College or a CEGEP or anything like that. Of course, you should arrive with your first aid and pleasure craft operator card and radar operator certificate.
We’ve worked with our strategy in the North because most young people don’t have a pleasure craft operator card because it’s not yet required in the North. Also, a driver’s licence in the North is not the same as in the South so we’ve tweaked the program to make it work in the Arctic.
Senator Raine: Thank you very much for coming back. This is great information.
I went to the Arctic with a different committee a few years ago and it was a real eye-opener, being a southerner. I can see how spread out it is. Obviously, a big part of what you’re going to do is communications from community to community.
Could you explain how that operates now? Is there good communication across the thread of communities throughout the Arctic, or are there some holes? Perhaps developing more of your resources in the North will help to expand the communication that can be used for other kinds of communication.
Mr. Lick: Following some of the themes from last week in terms of communications on the water, it is generally through radio but also through satellite communications.
We have infrastructure in the North with a number of towers that transfer communications between people in distress, in this case, and MCTS Iqaluit. Those are our links of communication that we have in the North for VHF medium frequency, or MF, and HF, or high frequency. There are very wide areas of the Arctic that are covered.
Right now, with any particular infrastructure, like radio communications, we continue to look at whether there are areas in the North that may not be covered. Certainly, the MF/HF and VHF don’t have all the same areas of coverage in the types of radio spectrums that there are. So our process of looking at where there are gaps and adding infrastructure — generally towers — that provide better links to MCTS Iqaluit, in this case, is always ongoing. Between communities, though, there are satellite communications or land lines.
That’s on the radio communications side so, senator, if your question is also oriented toward outreach and communications, Peter is probably best able to answer as he was just talking about how we are bringing communities together to decide on resources in the Arctic. I’m not sure if your question is along that line as well.
Senator Raine: It would be good to touch on that, but I was struck by the importance of the CB Arctic service because that’s very helpful to communicate to the individuals in the North.
I’m not so worried about people who live in the North because they are so resourceful, but if you decide you’re going to paddle your kayak up there and then you find out your cellphone doesn’t work, that’s more of a concern because those are people who really are at a loss without communications. They count on it.
Mr. Lick: Absolutely.
Senator Raine: It doesn’t make sense.
Mr. Lick: As I was saying last week, the ones who generally keep me and Peter up at night are the adventurers, as I call them — I think I called them something else last time — who go across the Arctic ill-prepared for the Arctic. The people of the North are much better prepared and might have a much better sense of how to live in the Arctic. They’ve been living there for thousands of years.
But it’s those adventurers who cause me sleepless nights so a lot of our work needs to be in educating people about what they need to navigate very isolated waters.
To touch on one of the things that we do in our Marine Security Operations Centre in Halifax, they have a role in looking not only at marine security but also about knowing who is going through the Arctic for safety purposes, as well. They’re on social media a lot looking at people’s plans for navigating the Arctic and that’s where we find a lot of information.
Typically, though, the vast majority of people do communicate with MCTS Iqaluit to notify them where they are along the way, but that’s not always the case and those are the people we have to worry about.
Mr. Garapick: I spent some time on the water in the Arctic last summer. We do have adventurers but what I’m seeing more and more is these are very well-planned adventures. You do have the not-so-well-planned ones but there are people who are on their 50-foot sailboats, they’ve got all the right gear and, as Greg mentioned, they are very active in communicating with MCTS Iqaluit. They stay in touch because they know it’s risky.
So we have informed adventurers going up there more so than uninformed ones, which is good.
As Greg mentioned, regarding VHF, we’ve worked very closely with the Government of Nunavut and the KRG, the Kativik Regional Government, and we continue to work with GNWT. The Government of Nunavut has provided base VHF stations — very high frequency radios — to communities if they have a search and rescue operation. Of course, that would now mean Coast Guard Auxiliary, so Nunavut continues to provide these base radio stations that the SAR group can use so that when someone goes out, anyone in the community can call back.
VHF is only good for line-of-sight. It doesn’t go around the curvature of the earth so it’s good for about 40 miles on a good day and if there are no mountains in the way. But what the communities have been doing is raising funds locally because the Government of Nunavut will provide the base station but they raise funds to put repeater towers up on either side of the community, expanding the range another 40 miles in either direction, which is really good.
Because it’s VHF, it’s not linked back into MCTS Iqaluit. It doesn’t reach there, but boaters can now phone or call back by radio to the community, the community can pick up the phone and call the right people.
These things are very dynamic. Lots of things are happening in the Arctic and lots of things are happening in technology and communications so there are a lot of new opportunities for people to use. The Government of Nunavut is promoting that people in the communities embrace VHF and do away with CB radios. Those have always been effective in small communities right across the country with boaters, but they’re saying, “Come on, let’s all get on the VHF.”
I want to suggest another product that’s on the market now that’s called InReach. I learned about it by travelling to the Arctic. InReach is made by Garmin. It uses the Iridium system and it is more or less a small texting device. Everybody is using it and the Government of Nunavut is now saying, “All of our land SAR people have this and we’d like you to consider this for the auxiliary as well.”
The great thing about this is you can text a message and can you send it. It’s not a press-to-talk voice message that can be garbled or lost. That little package of information goes up and comes down to a receiving unit.
If I send a map or a search plan from my unit on land, it will go to a vessel and if they have a GPS or a laptop, they can present that on their laptop on their boat. If they want to ping back their location, they can have a constant ping back so we know where they are.
It’s a really interesting device and we are certainly going to look into that, working with the Government of Nunavut to see if this is the way to move forward in the future.
Other satellite phones have a similar capability but this one unit seems to be what people in the Arctic are really buying into.
Senator Raine: Thank you. That’s great, because we heard the Iridium people last week and I was wondering about that Garmin device.
How expensive is that?
Mr. Garapick: I don’t know. I would suggest $400 each.
Senator Raine: So it’s reasonably priced.
Mr. Garapick: It’s reasonably priced, yes.
Senator Raine: That could be what we’ve been thinking could take the search out of search and rescue.
Mr. Garapick: Exactly. There are partners in the Government of Nunavut. Emergency Management visited them a couple of months ago and they look to have a base station in their office. If they have the base station in reach, they have a whole map of where everybody is and they can link them together, ping them and ping back. It’s very interesting.
Senator Raine: One final question, if I might. Is there a way to make it mandatory for people travelling from this place to that place to carry one of these?
Mr. Lick: Transport Canada regulates carrying equipment on board vessels. Much more rigorous and strict regulations are really for the larger ships. Transport Canada would be best placed as to how that would be achieved. From a search and rescue standpoint, and from both Peter and me, any type of leverage we can get from communication is a good thing for us, and certainly for the people in distress.
Senator Raine: Is that a kind of regulation that could be put in place by Nunavut’s government and the Northwest Territories?
Mr. Lick: Not typically. It would come under federal regulations.
Senator Raine: Thank you very much.
Senator McInnis: Thank you both for being here and happy retirement. I tried retirement once and it didn’t take. I ended up in the Senate, so be careful. You could be sitting here.
I was amazed at the size of the central and Arctic regions. 178,000 kilometres of coastline, and 3 million kilometres covered by water — it’s amazing.
So as you leave, what is your comfort level with respect to search and rescue? If you had some demands, what would they be?
Mr. Lick: Peter talked about one piece of equipment that would provide some benefit, or has opportunities to provide some benefit.
In terms of coordination, I’m very comfortable with how Trenton and Halifax currently handle the Arctic. If we have the ability to have more local knowledge, as I talked about earlier, I think that would be a good thing and it’s something we are looking into.
The idea of better communications in the Arctic, or anywhere in Canada, is a good thing. Technology, as Peter talked about, is evolving, providing us with better means of communication and reducing any gaps that we might have across the country.
For me, the biggest thing in search and rescue is, of course, prevention — to try and prevent that particular incident from happening.
As Peter talked about, the auxiliaries play an important role in not only response, but also in educating local communities. Educating the boaters in those local communities about the dangers of going to sea, what you need to carry, how to operate a boat, what you need to plan, making sure you have a sail plan that is given to either your local community or MCTS Iqaluit, as many do. So prevention is the biggest one.
I think the other one, as Senator Raine talked about, is the idea that we need to know where you are. Needing to know where you are, either by carrying radio communications or making sure you call in, is vitally important. If you don’t know where you are and you’re calling in a mayday, it’s very difficult for us to get to you.
I think the final aspect is that when there is an incident, being able to communicate that. Having tools, like Peter talked about, that are able to easily communicate both location and a distress is vitally important. If I was to invest, it would be in prevention — knowing where you are. Maritime domain awareness is what I’d call it. Then communications, making sure that you have the right equipment on board your vessel to communicate, and that the system is also able to pick that up.
Mr. Garapick: Good answers.
I would take it where I’ve been working. I see 45 communities on the waters of the Arctic. There’s really 50 if you include the five communities in Nunatsiavut and Labrador. We have 13 auxiliary units operational now, we’ll probably have over 20 this summer, and when the ice goes out we can do on-water training. What this is doing is it’s empowering these communities to look after the problems that arise locally.
It doesn’t mean an aircraft coming from the South, or an icebreaker being diverted, or a cargo ship obliged to divert off its path and help. The people who are in need are probably from the community, and they have probably gone 40 or 100 miles in one direction. If the training is there and the auxiliary is there, and they have the training, the equipment and the communication means, that solution is right there in the community.
My goal is funding, the grants of contribution to the Arctic for us to expand. We’ll probably need more of that if we want to be everywhere, but it’s working really well.
We’re building a family and expanding the SAR network. When that solution is in those 45 communities, we will have taken a major step in search and rescue in the Arctic. Does it deal with the commercial fishing vessel that gets in trouble? It could help. Does it deal with the expedition or cruise vessel that gets in trouble? Not necessarily, but we saw with the Queen of the North, which sank off B.C., a local community came out with small boats and made a big difference in that situation.
So that’s what I’m looking at: expanding the auxiliary and building the SAR system right across the country.
I’d like to add, the auxiliary has something called the SMS, the safety management system, it’s online and the unit is responsible for putting all their information on it. So when Trenton or Halifax gets a call they know it’s from Ulukhaktok. They’re going to bring up the Uluhaktok unit and say, okay, it’s Adam, the head unit guy, and Lucy is the administrator, and he sees the boat they are using, and all the equipment. He gets on the phone and says, who is this? And it’s Adam — they know each other and the equipment. Adam paints the picture of what the weather is like, what the situation is like, who they are and where they went. Together they work on the situation. That’s what is going to make a big difference.
The last thing I’ll say is we provided a lot of training in Yellowknife, in Cambridge Bay and soon to be in Nunavut and Kuujjuaq this coming year. We also hope, as we get the capacity, to provide on-scene coordinator training, OSC, for people in each community. Now JRCC has that extension of someone who knows their business, not just SAR, but the coordination of a tasking right in the community. So that could take us a long way in effectiveness as well.
Senator McInnis: You said earlier that there are a lot of adventuresome individuals and it’s important that they have a plan. When I look at your chart of the number of incidents of maritime search and rescue, it’s overwhelming that it’s pleasure crafts that are up there. It’s not even close.
Some of them don’t have plans, a lot of them don’t have plans. What is the reason for this? And you talked, Mr. Lick, about education, but these people go at will. They don’t have permission, they don’t need permission, so what is this chart about that it’s so high?
Mr. Garapick: I’d suggest those statistics are incorporating local boats and they are calling them pleasure craft. Any of the locals who go out and break down, or run out of gas, will have issues. It’s not just the adventurers. I suggested the number of adventurers is low and are usually well planned, unless they are on PWCs or a group doing a reality TV show, but those stats probably capture all the locals who are going out for pleasure.
It’s probably captured under pleasure. They could be hunting and fishing, but they are captured statistically in that manner.
Mr. Lick: As I was saying, and as Peter was talking about, the auxiliaries that we’re putting in the North will provide a huge amount of capacity to educate those local communities about the need to have a sail plan, and the need to have certain equipment aboard. With our expansion of the auxiliaries into the Arctic, that will provide one of the biggest levers to improve and reduce that number of pleasure craft breaking down.
Senator McInnis: A cruise ship would have to report that they’re going up? You’d have to know? Okay. Thank you.
Senator Raine: Are we collecting the breakdown of that pleasure category, i.e. cruise ships, big ships and adventurers?
Mr. Lick: Yes.
Senator Deacon: Thank you for being here. The witnesses have been most informative and it’s great you’re both back here today.
I think Senator McInnis’s question was very similar to the one I was going to ask you. As you sign off this chapter, what are those one or two things that are the deal breakers or game changers you think we need to go deeper on? I think you’ve responded to those in the senator’s questioning.
I’m going to come over to the reality of what we know about the Arctic region, its weather patterns, its continuing climate change and continuing issues around perennial ice reduction.
In your thinking, what are the factors in that climate piece that frame the kinds of supports you need to have? Moving forward from what we’ve known from the last chunk of time, how does that play a role in how you’re locating the frequency of support places? Is there anything you might share with us around that impact of climate?
Mr. Lick: I absolutely agree there is climate change. I think that history of denying it is gone because our most experienced people in the Coast Guard who have sailed there, in many cases, for 30 or 40 years, are certainly seeing it. They are not only seeing the waters becoming more open in certain times of the year for longer periods, but as I’ve mentioned before, they are also seeing the larger variability from year to year. One year it could be quite open and the next year it could be very much closed, and that is an impact that maybe isn’t quite as visible to the public.
But for us on the water, it absolutely has a huge impact when people go up there thinking it’s going to be free and clear and are not following the strict rules of a large cruise ship or tanker around where and when they can go. If you get up there, you can get stuck quite easily.
In terms of the relationship to climate change and search and rescue and the dependence on local communities to understand the changes that are happening to them, they’re seeing it every day. But in essence, because it’s new to everybody it may not be the best means of understanding how it’s going to go forward.
Speaking of search and rescue, I think the biggest area that will help us in understanding how to deliver search and rescue in the North over time would be our continually looking at and using our methodology to understand RAMSARD in a rigorous manner. In that regard, this year we’re going to be looking at the entire Arctic in the five areas that we consider the Arctic to be composed of. We will be applying this methodology to each of those areas.
Peter already used it to look at locating the IRB station in Rankin Inlet, but we will continue to use that process to look at it on a much more frequent basis so that not only do we better understand climate change and how it’s impacting traffic patterns and weather conditions and ice in those particular areas but also, as we expand into the Arctic with the auxiliary, how our resources and investments are helping in search and rescue delivery.
Ultimately, because it’s changing rapidly we have to look at the risks that are changing so rapidly, too. This methodology that we’ve developed and are using will help us to understand that better .
Whether the climate changes over one year or 30 years, we just have to look at it more often, more than anything, I think, to better understand where the risks are and how they’re changing.
Mr. Garapick: As Greg mentioned, the obvious thing is more open water earlier and later, but if you bring that down to the community level, that hit me when I had a visit up to Grise Fiord up North. It seems the sea level is up a little bit but the real impact is that it’s not getting as cold as quickly in the fall and it’s warming up sooner in the spring, so the ice that used to form in a solid sheet on the ocean is not there when the fall gales come.
So now you’ve got waves and erosion and the ice isn’t there for the hunters to go out on so they keep going out on their boats, which is dangerous because they used to go on their machines and qamutiiks on the ice. The flip side is that in the spring they want to be out on the ice but it’s disappearing earlier so they’re forced to go with their boats but the winter and spring winds are still there. So it’s a very different type of environment for them but they need to fish and hunt so this is something we have to look at.
The good news is if you have an auxiliary unit in that community and someone can get off the beach and go, the auxiliary should be able to do that too. Again, the solution is local for a dynamic environment, and that is really good.
I’ll add another aspect that Greg touched on. The ice certainly gets cold every winter and things freeze over in the middle of the winter, but it’s not multi-year ice. It’s first-year ice and this is melting and breaking up and floating around where it never used to float around before and so currents and tides are taking it. There are typical choke points in the Arctic but for the locals, now, the ice might be gone but if the wind comes up and is sustained for a few days, that ice all comes back. If they go away from the community, that ice could block off their return.
These are some of the things that everyone is looking at and seeing as a new challenge.
Mr. Lick: I think I mentioned last week, as well, that when our icebreakers go into the North, we did receive much feedback over the past two or three years that as they go into or near a community, sometimes that breaking of the ice does cause issues with the tracks they’re taking for hunting and fishing on snowmobiles, or other means, as they’re going across the ice.
So one of the changes that we’ve made in our operations is to make sure that those communities are not only notified before we go in but asked if there is an issue about us going into a particular area. Generally, we can change our transit to be able to get to another location. It’s much more of a sensitivity that we’ve needed to develop much more keenly regarding the issues around icebreaking and how that changes with hunting paths that, perhaps, are changing because of climate change, as well.
We need to be better aware of that and make communities part of that decision-making process.
Senator Deacon: Is it any influence on how you organize? You spoke earlier about going from three to four and we’ve talked about that jurisdictional piece or having any organizational pieces or multinational setups. Is there anything like that?
Mr. Lick: I’ve talked about the Arctic region, so that idea of having northerners be a bigger part and, in fact, lead the development of that region, as well as how search and rescue services — and other services — will be delivered in the North. They have better knowledge of the North than we do.
That’s not a large pill to swallow because I think we’ve understood that in the Coast Guard for many years, because we’ve been up there and have been aware of it. But certainly for the public writ large I think that’s something that we recognize is vitally important.
In terms of search and rescue, though, we do have international agreements through the Arctic Council and the Arctic Coast Guard Forum in terms of operational delivery of search and rescue. They tend to have more to do, though, with when we need to cooperate in the Arctic, particularly for a major maritime disaster or, perhaps, a major air disaster near water, to call upon other countries just as those countries can call upon us if they need it.
I think one of the bigger lessons learned over the years is Arctic countries generally recognize that we cannot handle every situation on our own. We sometimes depend on each other internationally to deal with certain situations.
Mr. Garapick: There is a change that has been made in the Coast Guard Auxiliary. There are five regions that are incorporated. One is Quebec and one is the Central and Arctic Region. Same name, but different boundaries.
In Quebec, they had zones one through five along the St. Lawrence. That was their focus in the past, and they now have zone six, and that’s Nunavik. There are 14 communities in Nunavik and two units are now in the auxiliary. The challenge has always been training capacity. As Greg mentioned, we’ll expect about four or maybe six or eight more in Nunavik because the boats and people are there; it’s just getting them in.
But it’s now zone six. The director is Mark Gordon. He is Inuk and lives in Kuujjuaq. You will probably meet him if you visit Kuujjuaq.
There are four instructors in Nunavik who can provide the training. You shift to the Central and Arctic region incorporative of the auxiliary; they have recognized it is a massive region for them as well. They have a dedicated manager of operations. He is in Yellowknife, I think, and they have a dedicated manager of training in Inuvik. They are both southerners living in the North for over 20 years, but as we build the capacity with the new units we look for those people to become part of the training, the instructors and whatnot. The Coast Guard auxiliaries are shifting and they won’t create an Arctic region like that either. They’ll take the steps they need to take to feel confident that it’s the right move to make at the right time.
Senator Coyle: Thank you both again. This is a question for both of you. Mr. Garapick, you mentioned the Iridium network. We had a representative of the Iridium network here testifying before this committee. She spoke about the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System — one of those acronyms you were referring to. You referred to the service provided through that network as state of the art and useful for maritime search and rescue, particularly in the remote Arctic region. She mentioned to us that they have been spending some time trying to get the International Maritime Organization and the International Telecommunication Union on board with an application they have for providing this service across the globe but also to the Canadian Arctic and told us that Canadian voices would be very helpful if they spoke up at the IMO, in particular, where we have a senior role to play.
Could you speak to us briefly on your opinion about the Iridium network and whether this is something that we should be promoting as a Canadian government?
Mr. Garapick: I think I will have a limited answer on that. The GMDSS system is functional right across the global network. It’s global and it seems to work well. It relies on radios, satellites and everything to connect.
The Arctic is always a challenge. Canada is part of the Arctic Coast Guard Forum. It’s eight nations and I’m involved in that as an expert in SAR. We all have the same challenges.
I’m not extremely familiar with the presentation she made, but as we’ve said there’s probably always room, with change in technology, to enhance or make better communications in the Arctic. I’ll wait and see what the global impact will be but right now, as I’ve mentioned, InReach is a local solution and that’s what I’m focusing on to make a difference now.
Mr. Lick: Maybe I’ll add a bit on that. What the witness was talking to you go about last time was how the Iridium network would connect into the GMDSS system. From a search and rescue operator point of view, I think having more equipment on the ground able to communicate into a system that alerts us in a more efficient manner is a good idea. Regarding whether they meet all the requirements, which is what the IMO and the special subcommittees have to evaluate so that they hook in properly against the standard into the GMDSS — and there are very rigorous standards for that — I can’t say. That’s for the committee to say. I think what we heard from the witness was that they met the requirements.
From an operator, from Peter and I and the search and rescue system, having more people have access into a system that alerts us — that is, as long as they meet the standard — is probably a good idea. I think that’s all I would say about that part of it.
Senator Christmas: Mr. Lick, has the Coast Guard ever considered using drones with FLIR technology on its vessels?
Mr. Lick: Absolutely. We’re in the process of evaluating UAV, UAS and whatever acronym they’re using for it nowadays, which continues to change all the time. “Drones” is much easier to say. Drone technology is an absolutely advantageous technology nowadays that can help us to get our eyes out farther, particularly providing capability at night-time and in more dangerous situations, absolutely.
We are evaluating FLIR technology on some of our vessels right now — not so much with drones per se but being able to see when coming up to a situation and to be able to search for people in the water. FLIR technology, which is infrared heat sensing technology for others, is a capability that makes sense around the world for finding people in the water more than anything. There is a whole range of technology. And because drone technology is evolving so quickly as a technology, we see the benefits. We’ve evaluated them in many conditions, such as search and rescue, environmental response and ice surveillance as well. But in the Arctic, which is what we’re talking about today, the ability to get across vast areas of the Arctic with a technology that flies and flies very quickly is an absolute advantage to us in search and rescue.
Senator Christmas: Regarding the MCTS Centre in Iqaluit, I assume the operators there have language capacity in Inuit as well.
Mr. Garapick: No. The centre there started in 1993. It’s called NORDREG it’s northern regulations for Transport Canada. It is a communications traffic centre.
Back in 1993, they had to find the people to work there for six months of the year in the summertime and then come South in the wintertime. It seems some of those people who started in 1993 are still there. They did an experiment with an Inuktitut service and it went for a couple years. It’s on our radar again.
As Greg mentioned, we’re adding a person to that team to enhance the capacity. We’re continuing to work with the community to say, “Can we take another look at providing that service? How can we work?” The great step we’re taking now at IRB is we have six Inuit students — I’ve seen two Inuit students — who are Inuktitut speaking as well. It’s something to look at. Stressing Inuktitut in the Baffin region is a little different in the Inuvialuit region and in Nunavut. We had to keep that in mind as well.
Mr. Lick: This is where the idea of northerners helping us to make decisions and leading decisions will help us to evaluate whether we need other language capacity. This is exactly a question that needs northern influence in it. As the region is stood up, and as people become more involved in looking at the services provided in the North, they’re going to decide on their own, with us, about how that service is provided.
Senator Christmas: As was mentioned, communications are vital in search and rescue. If those being rescued are unable to be understood in their language, then we have a serious problem.
The Chair: I want to thank our witnesses this morning.
Once again, Mr. Lick, I wish you all the best in your retirement. I’m sure we haven’t heard the last from you. Somewhere along the line, with the expertise you have, we might need to call you time and again to seek some advice.
Certainly the North is a challenge for us all, but I believe by working together as a committee, with the government officials and with the people in the North, most importantly of all, we can find some solutions to address some of the search and rescue issues that have been brought to us from that area. We look forward to our trip up there at the end of May. For me, it’s my first trip to the North. I’m sure some other senators are experiencing their first trip also. It will be an eye-opener.
Once again, I thank you for your time here this morning.
(The committee adjourned.)