Coast Guard station will be back in action by next month

The Canadian Coast Guard’s Kitsilano search-and-rescue station will reopen on May 1, but the federal government is dismissing calls to suspend or cancel its plan to shutter a communications station in Comox nine days later.

Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo is under pressure from MPs, community groups and close to 15,000 people who signed an online petition arguing that the Comox closure could leave mariners helpless in the event of a tsunami or earthquake.

But the minister, expressing confidence in the two remaining Coast Guard radio stations in Victoria and Prince Rupert, and in modern technology, showed no indication this week that he could be swayed by a study being done on the planned Comox closure by the Commons standing committee on fisheries and oceans.

Earlier in his testimony he confirmed that the Kitsilano station, shut down in 2012 by the former Conservative government, will reopen on May 1.

The Kitsilano decision, funded in the recent budget by $23.6 million over five years, fulfils a campaign promise by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The 24/7 station will have three vessels, including a fast rescue craft and a “pollution response” vessel. Marine communications stations provide distress and safety call monitoring and coordinate responses, according to the department.

MPs from all sides of the House of Commons, questioned in interviews on Thursday, Tootoo’s apparent unwillingness to consider the parliamentary committee’s recommendation, expected to come before the scheduled May 10 closure of the Comox facility.

Opposition MPs said it amounted to a broken promise.