Building the Canadian Coast Guard’s role in National Security
Press Release + Noah Note
The Canadian Coast Guard has always been an active member of the federal maritime security community. The amendments to the Oceans Act outline the new security-related authorities that will allow it to work more closely with partners to gain a more comprehensive picture of activities in Canadian waters.
The new security responsibilities strengthen the Canadian Coast Guard’s ability to collaborate with security partners, which will enhance maritime domain awareness and contribute to improved maritime security. The changes allow the Canadian Coast Guard to play a greater role in supporting Canada’s national security and protecting Canadian sovereignty, without any law enforcement powers or authorities.
With its extensive presence across Canadian waters, the Canadian Coast Guard maintains strong situational awareness of maritime activity. Its robust infrastructure, sensors, and surveillance capability provide a comprehensive picture of what is occurring within Canada’s 200-mile maritime zone, which will be used for security purposes.
What’s new for the Canadian Coast Guard
The Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act amends the Oceans Act to allow the Canadian Coast Guard to conduct security-related activities to adopt a more active role in Canada’s maritime domain awareness. These activities include:
Security patrols, which are now part of the Canadian Coast Guard’s responsibilities and will be integrated into operations. This will allow for a comprehensive understanding of activities within Canadian waters and identify any suspicious activity warranting further investigation or interdiction by an enforcement partner; and,
Surveillance activities to collect, analyze, and disclose information for defence, security, and intelligence purposes.
Safety First, Service Always
The Canadian Coast Guard’s commitment to safeguarding mariners and protecting Canada’s marine environment is not changing. The new security-related activities will not impact the services Canadians have come to expect from the Canadian Coast Guard. It will continue to provide its existing services to Canadians, including search and rescue, environmental protection, icebreaking, supporting ocean science, and supporting the economy by escorting vessels.
Throughout the implementation of these new activities, the Canadian Coast Guard remains committed to engaging with partners. The information it collects will continue to be shared with security partners as per the Canadian Coast Guard’s role within the Marine Security Operation Centres.
In alignment with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and the Inuit Nunangat Policy, the Canadian Coast Guard will consult with Indigenous Peoples regarding the impact of the new security-related activities on their rights.
Noah Note: With Bill C-12 finally received Royal Assent the CCG finally has their new additions to their mandate. As it stands nothing in the grand scale has reslly changed yet, howeveer it is an important part of the transition of the Coast Guard into a more active player in Canada’s Security architecture.
Some have said in the media that C-12 gives the Coast Guard a Security mandate for the first time. This isnt entirely true. The Coast Guard has maintained a very general, blanket security policy that has been outlined several times over the years (2004 National Security Policy as example) but C-12 takes that a step further by providing trying to codify a proper Security Mandate into place versus a generalist approach.
Of course as of now that mandate still remains very vague and open to interpretation. Here in lies the current issue. While Bill C-12 provides a framework for things like enhanced surveillance capabilities, interdepartmental information sharing, and a broader set of authorities to carry our security-relates tasks, there is still much that is yet to be cemented or truly set in stone.
A lot of that can be placed on the suddenness of the move under the Defence Team itself, a move that caught everyone fairly off guard. While it is true the discussions on moving the CCG had been happening for some time before, the confirmation and the move itself came on very suddenly and without much time to prepare for what the future quite entails.
As of now the CCG and Defence Team are working to better set out what sort of capabilities, infrastructure, and further support the Coast Guard needs to carry out this new mandate. There is still a lot in the air when it comes to have exactly the Coast Guard will look, especially with much of its fleet set to be renewed over the next fifteen years.
Truthfully perhaps that is the lucky thing. The Coast Guard renewal does present an opportunity to ask these questions now as we finalize the designs and begin construction on much of the future fleet. What kind of sensors do we need? How does the CCG handle information sharing under this new mandate? What kinda facilities does the CCG and it's fleet need to carry out this new Mandate?
Admitedly one could say that we're working in reverse. They've moved to the DND banner, they have the mandate, and just now are we figuring out what exactly that looks like. Simialrly the Navy is also working to see how they can better work and support a more security-focused CCG (besides stealing their docks) given it's own fleet renewal and a growing need for presence in the Arctic Ocean.
Needless to say a lot is ongoing. This is an improtant step, however, what it will really come down to is the ‘nitty-gritty' of it all and how exactly the mandate plans to be executed. Until we have more details there? We're left in a sort of limbo state for what exactly we can say on the future of the CCG. Hopefully we won't be waiting too long…
Something that has not been brought up yet (probably because the transition is happening so quickly) is what additional risks this is placing on the CCG. As long as they were very clearly an unarmed civilian search and rescue outfit, that was a form of defence in and of its self. But bringing them under the umbrella of DND and giving them, essentially, an ISR role in the military, they could be included in a (very stretched) definition of "combatant" in the event of a conflict. At which point, their lack of any kind of arment is a pretty big archilles heel... I know that there have been plenty of assurances to the CCG and the public that the CCG is not going to be transitioned into more of a martime police force like the US and many other nations, but what are the consequences of this decision? Is it sustainable if we are dragged into a conflict? I'm not actually endorsing arming the CCG, but I think Canada should be walking into this with eyes wide open... We are fundamentally changing the nature of CCG. It may appear subtle on the surface, but its still profound, especially in the context of armed conflict, something that I'm not sure many Canadians outside the military are mentally prepared to consider objectively.
Fundamentally, I think it's abundantly clear that bringing the CCG into Defense is very beneficial to defence, but probably not really the other way around. But what if it's actually detrimental for the CCG to be part of Defense? They have their own priorities, and adding new sensors and communication abilities to their ships is going to take time and funds that won't go to traditional CCG programs. And ship design is a game of give and take. Every extra pound and watt that goes to ISR systems comes with a trade off in weight and power generation and distribution. And more systems mean more maintenance... It's a cumulative effect, but it's real. Has that been considered and quantified in this rapid change in direction? I highly doubt it.
In the end, we need to make this work. But if we get too obsessed with all the upsides, the downsides are going to sneak up and wack us on the back of the head when we least expect it.
The multi-purpose ships replacing the 1100 Class with be double the tonnage, so don't expect the CCG to willingly give up dock space.