Canada’s Coast Guard © above&beyond/PIERRE DUNNIGAN (2)
L OOKS T O THE FUTURE by Kelly Bent
residents so closely tied to these vital waterways and offshore seas, this just brings home the crucial role Canada’s Coast Guard plays in protecting Arctic residents and the country as a whole. On January 26, 2012, the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) marked a significant milestone — 50 years as
N
a highly valued, marine operations agency within the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). The golden anniversary celebrations (commemorated nationwide) focused not only on the Coast Guard’s distinguished service history over five decades, but also shone an additional light upon the significant changes and shifting mission challenges the Coast Guard already deals with today and will most certainly be tasked with in the future. These are not small tasks. The service is responsible for safe-guarding the longest coastline of any nation in the world — running in total, some 243,000 kilometres (km) in length to our east, west, along the breadth of our northern reaches and encompassing an intricate Arctic archipelago that includes the famed Northwest Passage plus the balance of all of Canada’s territorial and provincial coastal boundaries. Our Arctic coastlines alone, run more than 162,000 km in length in total, and include the world’s largest (and operationally complex) archipelagic region. Essentially that means that our Coast Guard is responsible for an estimated 25 per cent of the offshore seas that make up the globe’s polar waters in the northern hemisphere.
March/April 2012
o longer a remote and uninhabited frontier, close to 120,000 people (est.) now live and work in Canada’s Arctic, It is no surprise therefore that the demand for national Coast Guard services has trended to increase exponentially trying keep pace with the rapid growth of communities and the ever-expanding scale of human and economic activity in the North. The reality is that most Arctic communities border on some sort of inland or coastal body of water. With the health and safety of northern
Search and rescue operations and ongoing eyes and ears vigilance are important missions in the North.
above & beyond
9
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56