CG is small in the scheme of government, but every time a new cost cutting policy is put in across the civil service, it has outsized implications because of the nature of their operations.
I think that moving CG from TC to DFO set the organization back about 15 years. CG ended up with the science and fisheries fleet which had been run bare bones and beyond for years. The CG fleet care dropped as funding was diverted to bring the new arrivals up to scratch.
It is easy to point at management and blame them, but they can only work in the system themselves.
Another thing about CG is the college.
They train their own officers and radio operators and have since the late 60s. For a small college that has graduated just over 1000 officers, they have had a pretty big impact. There are grads all across the federal government and in industry. They are through the ranks of CG, with differing levels of knowledge depending on where they've been.
From a friend who worked in a shipping company with a cadet program, " while it ensures that there are quality officers available, the overall affect (effect?) is to turn the organization inwards with no new outside blood coming in with fresh ideas". I wonder how true that is for CG.
if you haven't worked inside government with purchasing rules and trade agreements overseen by whatever PWGSC is called now and copious threats of audits and grim outcomes of said audits, you will never understand what those managers accomplish daily.and honestly any other professional mariner or marine manager would be ashamed of themselves.
There is no BBQ circuit or buffets for the grunts and certainly no uniforms.