Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

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D Winsor
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Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by D Winsor »

Found this article this morning on Boatnerd News Channel

Canadian Coast Guard facing icebreaker shortage

11/18 - Ottawa, Ont. – The Canadian Coast Guard is looking at ways to deal with a looming shortage of icebreakers as its aging fleet faces a mounting threat of frequent mechanical breakdowns.

The federal government on Thursday asked industry to begin drawing up options for providing icebreaking services, including the potential cost and availability, should they be required.

The request comes days after one of the coast guard's existing ships was taken out of service for what officials described as an "engineering challenge," which they predicted will become more common in the coming years.

"Aging ships come with a greater risk of breakdowns and increased requirements for unplanned maintenance," said Chris Henderson, the coast guard's director general of national strategies. "This means we may face potential gaps in icebreaking services over the next five years."

The coast guard says it may need as many as five extra icebreakers at various times over the next few years as the current fleet goes through repairs and upgrades and a new polar icebreaker is built.

That polar icebreaker, Canadian Coast Guard Ship John G. Diefenbaker, was supposed to be finished next year, at which point the government would retire the 47-year-old CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent. But a scheduling conflict at the Vancouver shipyard responsible for building the $1.3-billion Diefenbaker means it won't be ready until the early 2020s and so the St-Laurent is being kept in the water.

The federal government has not started moving to replace any of the coast guard's other icebreakers, even though nearly all of them are over 30 years old and some are nearly 40. "We're dealing with an aging fleet that's going to need a lot of tender loving care," Henderson said.

Officials blamed increased demand caused by changing ice conditions and activity in the Arctic for their search for alternative icebreaking services for up to 20 years, and not bad planning.

"I think this is, from the coast guard's perspective, prudent planning so that we don't end up in a situation where we don't have sufficient icebreaking capability," Henderson said. "We're doing exactly what we feel is necessary to find out from industry how they can help fill gaps that were previously unforeseen."

Officials said they are also looking to lease two tugboats to respond to accidents and other emergencies, as part of the Liberal government's recent commitment to stronger ocean protection.

Lisa Campbell, who oversees military and marine projects at Public Procurement, said the government would lease the tugboats for about five years. At the end of that period, it would look at how much they were used and decide whether to keep leasing the vessels or buy new ones.

Niagara This Week


I really like this Quote "Officials blamed increased demand caused by changing ice conditions and activity in the Arctic for their search for alternative icebreaking services for up to 20 years, and not bad planning."
Which begs the question what were they planning for? Accelerated Global Warming to melt the Arctic Ice Cap thus eliminating the requirement for Heavy Ice Breakers.
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Re: Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by JollyJack »

Charge by the hour for breaking ice anywhere west of the Cabot Strait to pay for new icebreakers.
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Re: Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by JollyJack »

I can only say that prior planning prevents piss poor performance. If only we forgot about budget deadlines and cost cutting, perhaps we could prevent kaka hitting fans.
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Re: Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by Merlyn »

Don't have ice over here so but we have politicians who will come up with equally ridiculous statements.
" it wasn't me, it was him " scenario.
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Re: Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by JK »

CG is the most underfunded department in federal government. Other then DND, it is the most asset heavy. You can plan for everything and anything but reality happens.
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Re: Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by D Winsor »

JollyJack wrote:I can only say that prior planning prevents piss poor performance. If only we forgot about budget deadlines and cost cutting, perhaps we could prevent kaka hitting fans.
I assume you know the expression "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

So what budget is sometimes the hardest to justify and is usually the first to be cut "The Prevention Budget" and with little or no "Prevention Budget" over a number of budget cycles. The "Cure Budget" will most certainly, over the long term, explode through the roof. The ones responsible for making the cuts to the "Prevention Budget" rarely see the correlation between the two and will go to great lengths to defend their "Great Planning and Creativity" in their management of the "Prevention Budget" and in turn blame others, usually Operations, for the exploding "Cure Budget" caused by Operations "Lack of Forward Planning and Creativity".

It is very easy to move numbers around on a budget spread sheet to get the mandated or desired "Bottom Line" when you are able to isolate yourself from, or oblivious to, the consequences of "Budget Creativity".
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Re: Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by JK »

IME. The training budget goes first, then there's great puzzlement why other costs go up.
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Re: Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by Big Pete »

But you can get the cost savings by going for third world crew on a dollar and day and year long trips!
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Re: Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by D Winsor »

Big Pete wrote:But you can get the cost savings by going for third world crew on a dollar and day and year long trips!
BP
Please don't give the bean counting Government Bureaucrats in Ottawa an idea like that!!!! :shock:
They might be able to get away with a third world crew on a chartered privately owned foreign registered Icebreaker from Russia or China, but I doubt if the law allows foreign nationals to work on either a Government Owned or Canadian Registered privately owned vessel on contract to the Government. But then again it is Government and all the Politicians have to do is change the law to make it happen.
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Re: Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by JK »

That will be an interesting twist as anyone who works for the feds needs to be security passed with fingerprinting.
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Re: Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by JollyJack »

Internationl STCW Tickets are not recognised for non-Canadians to work on Canadian ships......yet

Temporary foreign workers with STCW compliant certificates are not allowed to fill a Certificated position on a Canadian ship.......yet
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Re: Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by JK »

CG must have read your post, Dave!

Request for Information
Coast Guard is exploring options to address these challenges. The first step is to reach out to the shipbuilding and shipping industries for potential interim options that could provide Coast Guard with any vessels it may need pending delivery of new ships under the NSS. This has led Coast Guard, in collaboration with Public Services and Procurement Canada, to issue a Request for Information (RFI) inviting the marine industry to come forward with realistic, actionable advice on options to inform Coast Guard’s planning.
http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?mth ... id=1155489
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Re: Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by D Winsor »

Maybe so but my phone isn't ringing off the hook asking me for advice
Maybe they should come to the next lunch get together and we all can advise them on what to do :D :D :D
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Re: Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by D Winsor »

Maybe the CCG should be talking to the Aussies the Aurora Australis is about to be replaced and retired. The ship was built in 1989 new by CCG standards. According to Wikipedia with a LOA of 94.9m, Width of 20.3m and a deep draft of 7.86m she should be able to pass through the locks in the Seaway so she can get into the Great Lakes.
With a small crew and lots of accommodation space a good replacement for the Hudson me thinks

http://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-n ... australis/
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Re: Canadian Ice Breaker Fleet

Post by JFC »

I think we may be deviating a wee bit off course here.

The issue is our own state has been telling us for years, about the changes they be a coming in "Our" Canadian Arctic.....and really, some of you/us on this site have witnessed these changes real time.

Unfortunately, the people that we have empowered to be in charge of the Coast Guard and all the future planning over the last several years have been somewhat less than awake at the switch or busy playing politics or navel gazing at best. Oh, yes the budget cuts and the reorganization sapped their limited attention over the years but really, really what are they supposed to be doing? Imagine a shipping company operating this way?

Years ago, worldwide shipping has been going to their best and brightest young recruits and asking the hard questions and the response has been "yes....we should build ice class tankers and LNG ships because this data coming from the Canadian Government services is first class, true and correct....."

Meanwhile back in CG Headquarters, our own people have been not listening to our own government service predictions.....actually amiss.....all out busy out finally closing down surplus lifeboat stations, lighthouses, and radio sites and swanning around the buffet and BBQ circuit, slapping each other on the back, ordering new uniforms, and telling each other sea stories, when and honestly any other professional mariner or marine manager would be ashamed of themselves.

Arctic transportation is going to grow at an alarming rate...

This issue is nothing but short sighted and bad planning on the part of our Canadian Coast Guard Executive over the last 15 years...all paid for by taxpayers.

We and all Canadians should be enraged that these people are able to sneak off, and blame others for a game they alone were paid to play, or at least move the ball down field a few yards!!

what an embarrassment.
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