Marine Rescues Threatened by Faulty Radio System, Says Coast Guard Union

The union representing Coast Guard employees says its new communications system has serious problems on the British Columbian coast and brought some samples of garbled audio to a committee of MPs in Ottawa to prove it.

Representatives from Unifor, the largest private sector union in Canada, played the distorted audio recordings of Coast Guard communications for the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans Thursday afternoon.

The recordings were made in Iqaluit in 2012, but the union said it's the same system currently being used in B.C. with the same problems.

"We're very concerned with the quality of the sound," Joie Warnock, Unifor's western director told The Tyee. In its submission to the committee, Unifor said the Internet-based technology is nearly 10 years old and will soon be out-of-date.

Closure plan questioned

Unifor has fought the closing of three B.C. marine communications centres since the Conservative government announced the move in 2012. That plan will leave two communications centres in B.C. -- one in Victoria, the other in Prince Rupert.

The centres are responsible for distress calls and marine traffic. Unifor describes them as "the eyes and ears of the government's emergency preparedness on Canada's coasts."

Union representatives in Ottawa presented to the house committee in an effort to stop Comox, the last centre slated for closure in B.C., from being shut down.

Unifor told the committee the closure is a bad idea that puts the lives of boaters at risk.

Warnock said the audio distortion calls into question how well the former government studied the risks of consolidation, adding the plan needs to be halted and reconsidered.

The union said access-to-information requests did not yield any risk assessments for the plan done by the previous government. "We don't have any confidence in the process that lead to these closures," said Warnock.

The union has raised concerns of overloaded centres and risks of failure if the last closure goes ahead.

Warnock pointed to a loss of local coastline knowledge that could prove critical in emergency situations.

She also said the centres in both Victoria and Prince Rupert are located in tsunami zones, while the Comox station is not. That means the centres could be knocked out in the even of a tsunami, she said.

Radio bugs worked out, says Coast Guard

Coast Guard management testified at Thursday's standing committee hearing, too.

Director of general operations for the Canadian Coast Guard Gregory Lick disputed the union's complaints, insisting Coast Guard members are not put in charge of an area until they can display a knowledge of it.

"They are checked off in various areas and they will not take on the responsibility for a particular area until they've been checked out," Lick said.

According to the Coast Guard the new communications system has not led to any less capacity or range for radio communications and any previous sound issues have been fixed.

But the union said despite the fix, problems persist.

A test for Trudeau

The Liberals have committed to reversing a decision by the Conservatives to close the Kitsilano Coast Guard base in Vancouver, which was a highly controversial when it was made in 2012.

But Warnock said whether or not the Comox centre is closed will be the telling moment for the new government.

"It's a critical test for the Liberal government to do the right thing for marine safety on the coast," she said. "At this point there's no clear signal from the Liberal government that they're changing their course."