Strengthening oceans protection with new marine environmental response equipment

VICTORIA, Sept. 7, 2018 /CNW/ – Through the Oceans Protections Plan, the Government of Canada is working to improve our country’s capacity to prevent and respond to environmental emergencies. Ensuring the Canadian Coast Guard has the equipment it needs to lead the response to marine pollution incidents in Canadian waters is an essential part of this Plan.

Today, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, was in Victoria, B.C. to announce the first delivery of new marine environmental response equipment for the Coast Guard’s Western Regional Headquarters.

The new equipment includes curtain boom, which forms a temporary barrier to contain an oil spill, making the recovery of a spill easier and helping reduce the spread of oil, and medium-sized portable skimmers, which are used to collect, separate and remove oil from the water surface.

The new equipment is part of the Environmental Response Equipment Modernization initiative under the Oceans Protection Plan, and will help bolster the Coast Guard’s ability to respond to on-water environmental threats. This is a critical component of Canada’s world-leading marine safety system, which will keep Canada’s waters and coasts safe and clean now and for future generations.

Quick Facts

• The Environmental Response Equipment Modernization initiative is bringing new infrastructure, equipment and technologies to more than 80 Canadian Coast Guard locations across the country, including more than 20 in B.C.
• The Canadian Coast Guard’s Hovercraft Base Sea Island in Richmond, B.C. has also received new environmental response equipment. Personnel at that base and the Regional Headquarters are receiving training in deploying the new equipment.
• In July 2018 the Canadian Coast Guard opened a new Victoria search and rescue station, based at the Regional Headquarters. The new station enhances the Coast Guard’s capacity to respond to incidents of all kinds, including environmental response, around Victoria and in the eastern and central Strait of Juan de Fuca.
• The Coast Guard is opening four new search and rescue stations in British Columbia as part of the Oceans Protection Plan, including the Victoria search and rescue station, and new stations in Tahsis and the areas of Hartley Bay and Port Renfrew.

For further information: Media Inquiries, Communications, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 613-990-7537, Media.xncr@dfo-mpo.gc.ca; Jocelyn Lubczuk, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, Jocelyn.lubczuk@dfo-mpo.gc.ca, 343-548-7863