Coast guard cuts reduce odds of survival in cold water

TThe announcement last week ... means that when a call for help goes out, the help that can make the difference between life and death on the water is less likely to be close at hand.

here are a lot of ways to die on and in the water. None of them are pleasant. One of the first things you learn about boating is that seemingly small mistakes can have terrible consequences. A propane or gasoline leak in an enclosed space can turn a boat into a bomb. A forgotten valve and failed hose clamp can start a trip to the bottom. A leaking exhaust pipe transforms a cabin cruiser into a gas chamber.

The only fire exit is overboard. Life jackets can be lifesavers when properly worn, but not for long. Sparkling water that is so pleasant to behold can take your breath away if you fall in. It saps your strength within minutes. Even in the summer on the B. C. coast, if help doesn’t arrive quickly, life itself soon slips away.

After this summer, the odds of surviving a boating accident in English Bay are going down. No one can predict for certain by how much. But the announcement last week that the federal government is closing the Kitsilano coast guard station as part of its plan to patch up its leaky budget means that when a call for help goes out, the help that can make the difference between life and death on the water is less likely to be close at hand.

In the limited information that the federal government has made available about the decision, it claims that the Kitsilano station can be closed without affecting public safety, since it can respond to a call for help with the high- speed hovercraft based 31 kilometres away on Sea Island in Richmond. Without putting too fine a point on it, that claim is without substance, nonsensical and essentially fraudulent.

The union that represents the staff at the Kitsilano station kicked off a campaign Tuesday to save the rescue base after a Victoria Day weekend during which nine people in various forms of distress were helped. That brought the total so far this year to 55.

According to the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees, the base has responded to an annual average of about 300 calls for help over the past five years.

After the Kitsilano base is closed, the hovercraft may already be out on another call. It has to cover a large section of the Strait of Georgia in addition to the new area for which it will be responsible.

Even so, there are other resources the marine Rescue Coordination Centre in Victoria can turn to when a call for help comes in. Vancouver police has a marine unit with a couple of boats. So does the RCMP.

Neither police force is tasked primarily with search and rescue, however, and may not be around when someone needs help at 3 a. m.

The Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary also has several chapters in the Lower Mainland, but none in English Bay. Randy Strandt, the president of CCGA Pacific, told me Tuesday they are just starting to look at how the closure of the Kitsilano base will affect his organization, which already answers about 800 calls a year from bases up and down the coast. The auxiliary is staffed by volunteers who respond as quickly as they can, but still have other lives ashore. They were among the many affected organizations that weren’t consulted about the decision to close the Kitsilano station.

It is possible for police marine units to expand to take up some of the slack. The Metro Toronto Marine Unit is much larger than its Vancouver counterpart and is more involved in boating safety.

But that would represent another download of costs from the federal government to municipalities and should have entailed some consultation beforehand, if it was anticipated.

Apparently, Ottawa will also pay for a rescue boat during the busy summer months. But this being the land of perpetual spring and fall, the recreational boating season extends yearround in Vancouver, as it does for working mariners.

This doesn’t just affect boaters, of course. There could be an emergency on the Seabus or a float- plane accident.

On the other hand, if the government wants to cut costs, it has to cut services. In this case, the union says the annual cost to run the Kitsilano station is $ 900,000 a year. Hard choices will have to be made.

As a boater, I’m biased; however, this seems like not just a hard choice, but a dumb one as well.