Evidence of meeting #5 for National Defence in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was henderson.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Associate Professor, Canadian Maritime Security Network
No, the Coast Guard does not have that legal mandate. The Coast Guard serves as a—
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
[Inaudible—Editor] identified that as a potential of what we're looking for. Do they have a capability for boarding or enforcing illegal foreign fishing?
Associate Professor, Canadian Maritime Security Network
In a sense, the Coast Guard carries the other government departments that have that—
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
So they're on their own, and I appreciate that they can embark RCMP, navy or DFO.
Associate Professor, Canadian Maritime Security Network
They do not have that mandate.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Okay, thank you.
I'm moving on to the MSOCs. Are they capable of receiving and processing surveillance and tactical data, beyond phone, email and typed communications, and then sharing that with the regional Canadian joint operations centre?
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
They do have tactical data they can share with the regional joint operations centres. Is that correct?
Associate Professor, Canadian Maritime Security Network
That is my understanding.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Okay. Do they have cryptographic communications capability for sending secure messages via satellite, HF or other forms of communication for this enhanced surveillance data?
Associate Professor, Canadian Maritime Security Network
That, I can't speak to.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Okay.
Moving on to unions, the Coast Guard is currently unionized under several unions. Will this be compatible with the extra requirements of longer deployments and operations that can occur outside of regular times, which would require overtime operations?
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
The current [Inaudible—Editor] overtime to do extra drills or a boarding that may occur at off hours, etc. There's a significant cost.
As an Individual
That is not actually the structure of operations at sea in the Coast Guard. Coast Guard ships operate 28 days on and 28 days off, and the crews—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Charles Sousa
Unfortunately, because of protocol, we have a process that we require for the audio. I'm sorry.
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC
Perhaps my colleagues could stop asking Mr. Henderson questions since we know there's no interpretation. We've known that for an hour, but everyone keeps asking him questions as though it wasn't an issue.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
I appreciate that we'll potentially get a written response.
It's my understanding that the MSOCs currently operate only part time, from 8:00 to 4:00, not 24-7. Can we confirm that it is a Coast Guard overtime issue that's caused the shift from 24-7 down to 8:00 to 4:00 operations?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Charles Sousa
I'm looking at the witnesses. I know that's probably a good question for our officials.
Conservative
National President, Union of Canadian Transportation Employees
I think it's a little bit longer. They still have certain shifts, but I think it ends at 9:00, depending on what coast you are on.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
It's not 24-7. Thank you.
Will the Coast Guard, now that they're under the Department of National Defence, fall under Veterans Affairs for their benefits post-employment? Also, will they fall under the National Defence code of service discipline? I know these are issues that need to be worked out, but it seems none of this has been sorted.
Do we know if they're going to fall under the DND code of service discipline for these types of operations? That service code is required when operating weapons, etc.
National President, Union of Canadian Transportation Employees
No, we don't know that.