Yet another Coast Guard Base closure

Sotally Tober

Well-Known Member
Here we go again, closing another base. Protestors rally against closure of the Vancouver Communications and Traffic Service Center located in Harbour Centre. All the operations will now be handled out of Victoria.
This is a real loss of service in our local waters.

It's as if the Federal government couldn't care less about the West coast and the safety of our waters.

-------------------------------------------------------
As from Global BC :


Unifor B.C. area director Gavin McGarrigle talks about the imminent closure of yet another coast guard base.

A rally against the closure of the Vancouver Marine Communications and Traffic Service Centre, a third coast guard base to be shut down this year, is being held this afternoon.

The centre located in Vancouver’s Harbour Centre closed its doors today. All operations will now be based out of Victoria.


“They were the eyes and the ears of Vancouver,” says Chad Stroud, President of Local 2182, Unifor that represents Canadian Coast Guard communication officers. “They did everything from talking to the incoming vessels to responding to maydays and anyone who was in trouble.”

Stroud says their biggest concern is the loss of service.

“My members are proud Canadian Coast Guard employees. They are well-trained and have a lot of local knowledge. We are very concerned that the local knowledge is going to be lost because now it is going to be centralized in Victoria.”
 
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Ottawa the joke continues....

Yup the joke continues.... but the question is ... who laughs last

rtaImage
 
Reports state that by sometime in 2016, the current 5 Communication Centres will be reduced down to
2 by the government's consolidation process. This will result in a reduction of 39 jobs.
The upgrades to Victoria's monitoring system to cover Vancouver area won't be completed
until this fall.
 
I'm curious to know what "monitoring upgrades" need to be finished in Victoria. I wonder if they have the access to the land based radar stations and cameras that Vancouver station used to monitor our movements.
I talked to a senior Vancouver VTS operator a few days ago before the switch and it was their opinion that the move was terribly unorganized.
We didn't notice much change in the Harbour as far as normal radio response and traffic updates, but did hear a few voices that perhaps didn't recognize local terms yesterday.
The learning curve of local knowledge for some of these operators not intimate with Vancouver might be steep? Some terminals or places have changed names numerous times and some old timers still use the old names.
Everybody keeps calling Vancouver traffic and gets answered with "Victoria traffic", we'll see how it goes.
Sure hope they can see the radar feeds....
 
So this new communication system for English Bay seems to have some issues , not too much of a surprise.
The communication link with the Victoria-based Canadian Coast Guard office went dead twice in three days.
The service outages — one for 18 minutes and another for 27 minutes — are being blamed on old equipment installed in the 1980s and 90s.
Seems like the smart thing would have been upgrading the old outdated equipment before shutting down the local communication centre. The people that make these decisions either don't care about marine safety or aren't smart.
 
Personally I don't have an issue with this. The Radio frequencies, AIS, and Radar systems can be monitored in Victoria just as well in Vancouver (or vice versa).
 
Trying to make a news story out of nothing in my opinion


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I work at the Prince Rupert Coast Guard Station. We just went through amalgamation with Tofino Coast Guard Radio this month. I can answer any questions anyone may have with the centre closures as honest as possible. I have both positive things and negative things to say on both sides of the coin.
 
I work at the Prince Rupert Coast Guard Station. We just went through amalgamation with Tofino Coast Guard Radio this month. I can answer any questions anyone may have with the centre closures as honest as possible. I have both positive things and negative things to say on both sides of the coin.

I'd be grateful if you could post a summary of the positives and negatives. You've got an understanding and perspective about this issue that few have and would be worth sharing.
 
The first closure on the west coast was Tofino MCTS (marine communications and traffic services) they provided traffic and safety information from Juan de Fuca up the west coast of Vancouver Island. They have 6 VHF mountain top sites and 1 MF/HF site.

Tofino MCTS was closed last month and move to Prince Rupert. During the amalgamation Prince Rupert received a facelift so to speak. We received new work station consoles. The biggest change was the new equipment. We went from a tactile switch selector to a touch screen computer.
There have been hiccups during the amalgamation but overall I am pleased with how everything went. The service to the mariners so far has gone unchanged. The biggest gripe so far has to do with the new CMB products. The new CMB is now fully automated. Weather products come in from environment Canada and are transcribed via voice to text. Currently there are some major problems and we are not using it until it is operational. Right now we are receiving weather products and recording them for the CMB. Personally I think this is better and the mariners agree.

Tofino and Prince Rupert had three operational positions. After amalgamation we have gone down to five. Due to the overall work load on the west coast of Vancouver Island and the North Coast I think this was the right move. My biggest concern is how big the area has become. We now provide traffic and safety from for the whole west Coast from Washington to Alaska. We have 22 VHF sites and the noise level has increased dramatically.

Vancouver MCTS officially closed this month. The Safety position had already been moved to Victoria last year due to staffing issues in Vancouver. Vancouver had four operational positions and has lost two due to amalgamation. One of which is the RMIC (regional marine information centre) they fly are under the radar for the average mariner but provide a major role for all government agencies. The issue notships, provide vessel clearances to enter the country, receive pollution reports etc. Vancouver MCTS is the second busiest centre in the country.

Comox MCTS is due to close in the fall/winter of this year. They will also be amalgamating to Victoria. Comox will be losing one operational position. Comox MCTS is probably the 3rd or 4th busiest centre in the country. When all is said and done Victoria MCTS will have nine operating positions. 4 traffic, 4 safety, and 1 supervisor. The Canadian Government is combining the three busiest centres in the country.
The west coast accounts for 50% of the nation’s workload. When Victoria is fully amalgamated they will do approximately 40% of the workload on their own. To put this in perspective, before amalgamation Victoria MCTS would do more work in one day then all of the Newfoundland Region and Atlantic Region Combined. That is 8 centres.
What’s most frustrating for us on the west coast is that Newfoundland for example is only closing two of the five centers when the busiest three centers in the country are being combined.

I am not going to sit here and say that with amalgamation people are going to die and pollution will plague our coasts. I firmly believe however that the service provided will not be as good for a period of time. Most of that has to do with the new equipment we are being forced to use. Because of where Prince Rupert is, not one person from Tofino MCTS decided to move here. We are losing hundreds of years of combined experience. This is being replaced with 13 new staff over a two year period. In Victoria it is going to be a mad house. It is not uncommon for Victoria, Vancouver, and Comox to have ten incidents going on at the same time. The noise level in that room concerns a lot of people.

In closing, the projected cost saving of MCTS amalgamation is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 million dollars a year. The cost for this amalgamation is 65 million dollars. The Canadian tax payers (me included) will not see a saving until 2028.
 
Mad shaw
Thanks for your summary. I found it to be very informative. It is the best response to this topic yet.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
The first closure on the west coast was Tofino MCTS (marine communications and traffic services) they provided traffic and safety information from Juan de Fuca up the west coast of Vancouver Island. They have 6 VHF mountain top sites and 1 MF/HF site.

Tofino MCTS was closed last month and move to Prince Rupert. During the amalgamation Prince Rupert received a facelift so to speak. We received new work station consoles. The biggest change was the new equipment. We went from a tactile switch selector to a touch screen computer.
There have been hiccups during the amalgamation but overall I am pleased with how everything went. The service to the mariners so far has gone unchanged. The biggest gripe so far has to do with the new CMB products. The new CMB is now fully automated. Weather products come in from environment Canada and are transcribed via voice to text. Currently there are some major problems and we are not using it until it is operational. Right now we are receiving weather products and recording them for the CMB. Personally I think this is better and the mariners agree.

Tofino and Prince Rupert had three operational positions. After amalgamation we have gone down to five. Due to the overall work load on the west coast of Vancouver Island and the North Coast I think this was the right move. My biggest concern is how big the area has become. We now provide traffic and safety from for the whole west Coast from Washington to Alaska. We have 22 VHF sites and the noise level has increased dramatically.

Vancouver MCTS officially closed this month. The Safety position had already been moved to Victoria last year due to staffing issues in Vancouver. Vancouver had four operational positions and has lost two due to amalgamation. One of which is the RMIC (regional marine information centre) they fly are under the radar for the average mariner but provide a major role for all government agencies. The issue notships, provide vessel clearances to enter the country, receive pollution reports etc. Vancouver MCTS is the second busiest centre in the country.

Comox MCTS is due to close in the fall/winter of this year. They will also be amalgamating to Victoria. Comox will be losing one operational position. Comox MCTS is probably the 3rd or 4th busiest centre in the country. When all is said and done Victoria MCTS will have nine operating positions. 4 traffic, 4 safety, and 1 supervisor. The Canadian Government is combining the three busiest centres in the country.
The west coast accounts for 50% of the nation’s workload. When Victoria is fully amalgamated they will do approximately 40% of the workload on their own. To put this in perspective, before amalgamation Victoria MCTS would do more work in one day then all of the Newfoundland Region and Atlantic Region Combined. That is 8 centres.
What’s most frustrating for us on the west coast is that Newfoundland for example is only closing two of the five centers when the busiest three centers in the country are being combined.

I am not going to sit here and say that with amalgamation people are going to die and pollution will plague our coasts. I firmly believe however that the service provided will not be as good for a period of time. Most of that has to do with the new equipment we are being forced to use. Because of where Prince Rupert is, not one person from Tofino MCTS decided to move here. We are losing hundreds of years of combined experience. This is being replaced with 13 new staff over a two year period. In Victoria it is going to be a mad house. It is not uncommon for Victoria, Vancouver, and Comox to have ten incidents going on at the same time. The noise level in that room concerns a lot of people.

In closing, the projected cost saving of MCTS amalgamation is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 million dollars a year. The cost for this amalgamation is 65 million dollars. The Canadian tax payers (me included) will not see a saving until 2028.

Thanks that was interesting. I hope you don't get into trouble with your employer and the information control freaks at the PMO for posting.
 
from reading this it sounds to me like they would have been better off to just leave well enough alone... thxs for the info and posting madshawn.
 
Thanks for the kind words everyone.

Like I said, if anyone has any questions about Coast Guard Radio I am happy to try and help.

As for the Harper Government, I tried to be objective with both positives and negatives. I feel the public deserves to know the truth. I am personally sick of hearing how everything is going so great when it’s not. I am also sick of hearing union's talk about how the sky is falling when it’s not. There is a middle ground that everyone deserves to know about.

Shawn
 
Good points madshawn. At first I was quite concerned over some of these closers and wondered as others if there wasn't maybe a better way to save money. Depending on ones views I suppose there Is always a better way for some. But when you think about it do we really need the coverage that we needed back 20 - 30 years ago. I mean look at the activity out there these days compared to a few years ago and every body has a cell phone or camera,, you can't take a pee now a days and someone knows. Just because we needed a set of eyes on every point in the 50's is it necessary today just because it has always been there. Do we keep paying that wage just because it has been there for ever. No I think in today's world with so many eyes out there and everyone reporting things that some of these moves are going to be fine.

We all want things ran better but no one wants to make the sacrifice. It sucks when someone loses their job but life goes on, we move on.
 
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