As the search for a missing submersible with five people aboard continues about 700 kilometres south of Newfoundland, two federal cabinet ministers came forward today to say the focus is on saving lives, not on the cost of the rescue operation. In Ottawa, the minister responsible for the Canadian Coast Guard, Joyce Murray, said the…

The federal government says it doesn’t know when Quebec shipyard Chantier Davie will deliver a fleet of new icebreakers to the Canadian Coast Guard. Officials say the schedule will depend on negotiations with the shipyard, which was formally added to Ottawa’s multibillion-dollar shipbuilding strategy last week. There are long-standing concerns about the Coast Guard’s existing…

A senior defence official says Canadian taxpayers are on the hook when it comes to fixing at least two of the Royal Canadian Navy’s new Arctic patrol vessels. Defence Department deputy minister Bill Matthews says that is because the one-year warranty on those two ships has expired. The federal government is planning to buy eight…

The federal government has finalized a contract with Irving Shipbuilding to build two additional Arctic and offshore patrol ships for the Canadian Coast Guard, the first of which is expected to be completed within four years. Ottawa estimates the project will cost around $1.6 billion with the first ship arriving between 2026 and 2027. Irving was first awarded…

Canada would need Russia’s help in conducting a response effort if a major “search and rescue” incident were to occur at the North Pole, says the assistant commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard’s Arctic region headquarters, Neil O’Rourke. Speaking to the House of Commons national defence committee on Nov. 22, O’Rourke said that with the increased…

More than a decade of delay and inaction has left the ships, planes and satellites that Canada relies on to monitor its rapidly opening Arctic on track to be retired before they can be replaced, the auditor general says. “The federal government has not taken the required action to address long-standing gaps affecting its surveillance…

The Canadian Coast Guard is adding another ship to its fleet. The federal government announced today that it is purchasing a second-hand icebreaker for $45 million to make sure the coast guard has enough ships. The coast guard’s existing icebreaker fleet is extremely old and seen several breakdowns in recent years, with the arrival of…

VICTORIA—Dozens of refrigerators and bags of Styrofoam and garbage have been picked up from a remote Vancouver Island beach as the cleanup has started from 109 shipping containers that fell overboard from a ship off Victoria. The Canadian Coast Guard says in a statement that 71 refrigerators, 81 bags of Styrofoam and 19 bags of…

VANCOUVER, British Columbia—Canadian Coast Guard officials said Sunday a fire that was burning in several containers aboard a cargo ship off the coast of British Columbia appeared to be out. The Coast Guard said it received word late Saturday morning that a fire had broken out in 10 damaged containers aboard the MV Zim Kingston,…

OTTAWA—The Canadian Coast Guard signed an agreement Friday with Britain’s Royal Navy to train its sailors on Arctic icebreakers in Canada’s Far North. The memorandum of understanding follows a 2020 agreement between the two NATO countries that saw officers from Britain’s HMS Protector train aboard a coast guard vessel. The Canadians will work with British…