Organization’s Role in Public Safety

• Fisheries and Oceans Canada is responsible for safe harbours, waters and waterways, producing reliable navigational charts and maintaining an extensive system of navigational aids and marine communication. The Department’s fleet provides icebreaking, aids to navigation, rescue, safety and environmental response services.
• The Canadian Coast Guard and the Canadian Hydrographic Services, both nationally recognized organizations and part of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans organization, greatly contribute to the Department’s role in public safety

1. Small Craft Harbours
• The department helps local harbour authorities safely maintain the network of small craft harbours that provide refuge to Canada’s commercial fishing fleets and recreational boaters.
• The department monitors the physical condition of these harbours, provides the professional and technical expertise needed to operate and maintain them and helps fund repairs.
2. Marine Communication and Traffic Services
• The Canadian Coast Guard operated Marine Communications and Traffic Services centres continuously monitor international distress frequencies for possible emergencies and communication needs. Ongoing broadcasts of weather, navigation hazards, ice reports and other key information give mariners the information they need to get where they’re going safely
3. Office of Boating Safety
• The Canadian Coast Guard’s Office of Boating Safety (OBS) provides the recreational boating community with a full range of services to enhance operator knowledge and proficiency, the safety of the vessel itself, appropriate equipment carriage (such as lifejackets), and safe vessel operation.
• Working closely with the boating community, OBS delivers prevention-based programs to reduce safety risks and environmental impacts of boating on all waters in Canada.
4. Search and Rescue
• The Canadian Coast Guard’s Search and Rescue program responds to a wide range of marine emergencies, providing skilled, professional crews and specialized vessels and equipment.
• The Canadian Coast Guard also coordinates the activities of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary, a corps of 5,000 volunteers and 1,500 vessels that helps the Canadian Coast Guards respond to distress calls and deliver prevention services.
5. Environmental Response
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada helps protect Canada’s oceans and their resources by responding to spills in Canadian waters.
• The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) certifies and monitors private-sector emergency response organizations, to ensure their competence and readiness
• The CCG steps in to take charge of cleanups when the private sector is unable to respond adequately to a spill, and maintains comprehensive inventory of marine pollution control equipment
6. Aids to Navigation
• The Canadian Coast Guard assists thousands of vessels involved in such activities as commercial shipping, fishing and recreation, by providing navigational aids such as buoys, beacons and channle markers on Canada’s busiest waterways.
• Aids to Navigation, used with charts provided by the Canadian Hydrograhic Services, make the single greatest contribution to the safety of life and sea, and prevent damage to our environment by keeping mariners “off the rocks”.