Ocean plan includes boost to coast guard
New lifeboat stations, support for coastal habitat restoration and a bolstering of the federal fisheries department and Canadian Coast Guard were all part of a significant funding announcement that Federal Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc made in Victoria.
The announcement comes at the same time that local salmon enhancement groups say they were blindsided by news their program funding would be cancelled and the Canadian Coast Guard’s dive team would be reassigned to other duties.
LeBlanc announced $108.1 million over five years to establish seven new lifeboat stations, at Victoria, Hartley Bay, Port Renfrew and Nootka Sound near Gold River, plus three in Newfoundland and Labrador, $75 million for habitat restoration for species such as Pacific salmon, and 24/7 emergency-response support for existing Canadian Coast Guard stations.
Another $6.85 million over five years will be used to remove derelict boats and educate boaters to prevent vessels from being discarded.
The funding is part of the $1.5-billion Oceans Protection Plan, originally announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November, two weeks before he gave the green light to Kinder Morgan’s contentious Trans Mountain pipelineexpansion project.
LeBlanc said the federal funding will be allocated whether or not Trans Mountain — which the B.C. NDP and Green parties have committed to block — moves forward.
“The investments we’ve made are not contingent on one particular natural resource project. They’re done after careful analysis, including scientific analysis, of what are the best marine protections,” LeBlanc said.
LeBlanc said a separate $1.4 billion would be used to “rehabilitate” the federal fisheries department and Canadian Coast Guard after years of cuts.
The boost includes a 15 per cent increase in coast guard staffing within the next two years, and upgrading fleets, communications equipment and technology.
“No longer will our scientists be working under leaky roofs or using dial-up Internet and no longer will our coast guard staff have to go on vessels that haven’t been properly maintained,” LeBlanc said.
But some local groups say the announcement is at odds with the ministry’s decision to cut funding to some salmon-enhancement projects.
The Stream to Sea Education Program, which involves 35,000 students in B.C. and Yukon each year, will have its education support contracts terminated.
Ian Bruce, executive co-ordinator with the Peninsula Streams Society, said the $400,000-a-year program gave students an important, first-hand introduction to important salmon species.
In Greater Victoria and the Gulf Islands, about 3,000 students in 105 classrooms have helped raise Pacific salmon in classroom incubators for release in 15 local streams, as well as marking storm drains for public awareness.
“The cuts to the salmon-enhancement program impair our ability to deliver technical projects, as well as environmental education,” he said.
Bruce, the southern Vancouver Island representative for the salmon enhancement advisory board, which meets three times each year to advise the minister about salmon enhancement, said the board had no warning of the cut. “It just came down all of a sudden,” he said.
Other cuts will eliminate contract biological and technical-support positions.
The union representing workers on the Canadian Coast Guard’s dive team said cutbacks could have serious consequences.
The Richmond-based Sea Island emergency crew, which is responsible for rescue and recovery of people trapped in boats and cars that are under water, is being reassigned, on the grounds that it’s not part of the coast guard’s core mandate.