Coast guard fleet in bad shape, report says

• A report done for Transport Canada and quietly tabled in the House of Commons paints a grim portrait of the country’s coast guard fleet, saying it is understaffed, desperately in need of new ships and without political support.

The analysis of the nation’s transportation network was part of a statutory review submitted to the Trudeau government last December but not tabled until the end of the February.

It noted that unplanned maintenance on aging coast guard vessels skyrocketed in 2014.

“Not only is it understaffed, but its fleet is one of the oldest in the world and urgently requires renewal ( individual ships average nearly 34 years of age),” said the review of the Canadian Transportation Act, led by former Conservative cabinet minister David Emerson. “Without such renewal, it will have to pull ships from service, further reducing reliability.”

The independent report was accepted by Transport Minister Marc Garneau.

“Under the national shipbuilding and procurement strategy, which requires the Canadian Coast Guard to purchase ships from Canadian shipyards, it can only replace one ship a year, at most,” the review said.

“At that rate, the median age of the fleet will not decrease.”

The report said coast guard icebreaking services in the Arctic are decreasing, while vessel traffic in the region is increasing. It blames the number of breakdowns on underfunding of maintenance by the previous Conservative government and a general neglect by politicians.

“Indeed, for such a critical piece of transportation infrastructure, the Canadian Coast Guard is not receiving the political attention, or the administrative and financial resources, it requires,” the report said.