Under its $1.5 billion Oceans Protection Plan seeking to protect waters and coastlines and enhance safety, the Government of Canada announced four new measures aiming at safer maritime navigation and emergency response.
The Oceans Protection Plan, initiated by the Government in November 2016, is Canada’s largest investment ever made to protect coasts and waterways by creating a world-leading marine safety system that provides economic opportunities for Canadians, while protecting coasts for generations to come. Canada has already announced initiatives worth more than $600 million under the Plan.
The new measures, announced by the Minister of Transport, are:
- Providing $110 million over five years for the Canadian Hydrographic Service to chart 23 high-priority commercial ports and near-shore areas along all three coasts to create safer navigation for mariners. This new investment will fill important gaps in critical areas across the country that currently have limited and out-of-date navigational information, and give mariners high-resolution electronic navigation charts, navigational products and data for increased safety. To date, surveys of eight out of the 23 ports have been completed.
- Adding seven additional coastal communities (nine total) to test a new information system showing where ship traffic is located—and other essential maritime information—as part of the Enhanced Maritime Situational Awareness initiative. These communities include:
-The T’Sou-ke Nation and the Pacheedaht Nation (British Columbia)
-The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (Quebec)
-The Essipit Innu First Nation Council (Quebec)
-The Maritime Aboriginal Peoples Council (Atlantic Canada)
-The Nunatsiavut Government (Atlantic Canada)
-The Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories (Arctic)
-The Hamlet of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut (Arctic)
-The Council of the Haida Nation (British Columbia)
-The Gitga’at Nation (British Columbia)
The selection of a contractor to build a system that can provide near-real time data on local ship traffic will be one of the largest agile procurement projects in the Government of Canada’s history. Indigenous and coastal communities, Transport Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard will work together to award the contract.
Through the $62.5 million invested in the Enhanced Maritime Situational Awareness initiative, initiated in November 2017, the Government of Canada will make $9.8 million available over two years to support the implementation of these pilot project communities and work with them to develop, test and evaluate the new system.
- Awarding an initial contract to Hercules SLR of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, to supply the Canadian Coast Guard with two vessel-based emergency tow kits, plus equipment and training. This initial contract is valued at more than $180,000, and is part of a plan to install tow kits and related equipment on all large Canadian Coast Guard vessels, including five vessels on the West Coast. The initial contract includes options for up to 62 additional tow kits and related equipment.
- Allocating $7.2 million over five years in the Marine Weather Information Services Demonstration Project. This project will deploy five smart buoys (two on the west coast and three on the east coast) that will produce data for tailored weather forecasts. These smart buoys will have innovative high resolution weather prediction systems that will enhance marine forecasting and improve marine navigation and safety for mariners.
