Good morning, Mr. Chairperson and committee members.
My name is Allan Hughes. I am the president of Unifor Local 2182. I represent marine communications and traffic services officers across Canada. Our officers are responsible for detecting marine distress calls and regulating shipping movements in the Canadian waters. That's the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic, St. Lawrence Seaway, and the Great Lakes.
Without our presence and our professionalism, there would be significantly more marine pollution due to shipping accidents, and obviously the safety of life at sea would be in jeopardy. Our officers can really be considered the 911 operators of the ocean, and the air traffic controllers of the marine waterway.
In the 1990s, the union representing radio operators at the Coast Guard radio stations approached the government to propose consolidation and mergers with the Coast Guard vessel traffic regulators across Canada. The union initiative, carried out through the 1990s, saw 44 centres condensed into 22. That saved approximately $15.7 million a year, and that was in 1990 dollars.
In 2012, the deficit reduction action plan was announced, and Coast Guard was moved to consolidate 22 remaining centres into 12. This saw 10 additional closures across Canada, in Inuvik, Rivière-au-Renard, St. John, St. Anthony, St. John's, Montreal, Thunder Bay, Ucluelet, Comox, and Vancouver. This consolidation was completed on May 10 of this year and was proposed to save approximately $5.7 million a year.
In 2012, we had 350 officers at 22 centres across Canada, and the Coast Guard's goal was to reduce approximately 60 officers and supervisors. The net result is 100 officers left, leaving a shortage of approximately 40 officers across Canada.
It takes a newly hired officer, what we refer to as an ab initio, six months training at the Canadian Coast Guard College in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and then a further six to 18 months to certify with an on-job instructor, so that they can work on their own. In some centres, that certification may involve training in as many as seven sectors or operating positions. It costs approximately $100,000 to train each of those recruits.
Currently, the Coast Guard College in Sydney is limited in its ability to train enough officers to replace those who have departed, and like the rest of the public service, there's a huge retirement bulge coming in the next five years. We anticipate a great number of departures.
Adding to the challenges due to the short-staffing situation across Canada in our centres and regions, the regions are reluctant to release experienced officers to teach at the college, which is further complicating the ability for the college to train more officers. Without significant investment in recruiting new officers and strategies to retain the existing officers, the MCTS program may be forced to decrease levels of service, leaving our coasts at risk.
With the shortage of officers, centres are combining operational positions and increasing the areas that our officers are required to monitor: shipping, and listening for distress calls. This is an area where there are tankers, deep sea traffic, container ship concentrations, fishing vessel activity, and pleasure craft activity, some of that year-round.
In addition to the human resources challenges, technology impedes the delivery of services by our officers. The technology that has been introduced in the last number of years hasn't increased the efficiency or effectiveness of the service, or the delivery to our users in the marine community. For example, look no further than the current implementation of the Phoenix pay system to know that project management and technology need to be well tested before being implemented.
To protect all three coasts, three oceans, Great Lakes, the government must commit to predictable, stable, and long-term funding for the Coast Guard. This commitment means increased capacity at the Coast Guard College for more instructors. It means hiring more officers to get ahead of the predicted departure over the next five years, and increasing the staffing factor that accurately reflects 24/7 operations. The Coast Guard requires adequate experienced staff to properly study, develop, and test technology to meet the current and future operational requirements of the MCTS service and the domain awareness of security to many agencies, such as DND, RCMP, and Transport Canada.
The bottom line is that the Coast Guard is more than ships. MCTS is the first line of defence to prevent marine casualties and respond to accidents that happen. It requires long-term, stable funding.
Thank you for the opportunity to present our concerns.