Fraser slams Coast Guard in newest AG report

[17thRecceSgt]

Just read this one...

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopStories/ContentPosting.aspx?newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20070213%2fauditor_general_070213&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V2&showbyline=True

Auditor General Sheila Fraser keelhauled the Canadian Coast Guard in her latest report, saying it is burdened with aging ships and rife with incompetence.

CTV.ca News Staff

Auditor General Sheila Fraser discusses her report at a news conference in Ottawa, Feb. 13, 2007. (CP / Tom Hanson) 

Monitoring Canada's fish stocks are a key responsibility, yet constant breakdowns have kept boats tied to wharfs.

As a result, scientific missions have been cancelled, leading to inaccurate information about fish flowing to government.

"The information is at best dated and may not be as accurate as it should be," Fraser told reporters Tuesday in Ottawa.

"Our Coast Guard has not been able to do any of the surveys on the fish stocks since 2001," Robert Fife, CTV's Ottawa bureau chief, told Newsnet. "So we have been making valuations on fish stock without any proper analysis because the fish stock surveys have not been carried out."

Last year, the entire spring survey of the Newfoundland region was cancelled because two vessels were out of service. However, Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn announced a limited fishery in one area.

Nova Scotia NDP MP Peter Stoffer told reporters: "As long as the Coast Guard stays within the clutches of Fisheries and Oceans, it will go the way of the codfish."

Fraser said that the Coast Guard has demonstrated a history "of failing to complete corrective action on issues raised in our reports and the reports of parliamentary committees."

This is costing Canadians, she said.

For example, a lack of national repair standards and procedures means millions have been wasted on unnecessary repair jobs -- and in some cases, incompetent ones -- on the aging fleet, she found.

Some examples:

An engine caught fire after the crew aboard a research vessel fixed an engine without the manual, costing $1.3 million in damage.
The repair of two potable water tanks that was supposed to cost $53,000 ended up costing $1.6 million in extra fix-it work.
Rebuilding fuel pumps improperly on the Louis St. Laurent arctic icebreaker cost $6 million
Fraser also detailed another incident in which the failure to properly bolt down an engine cost taxpayers $1.6 million.

"In some cases, it's like teaching an old dog new tricks. You take someone who's been on the sea 30 years and he knows his boat. Sometimes you fix it with a rubber band and a straight pin," Hearn said.

Fisheries and Oceans, which oversees the Coast Guard, said the agency is already at work to address some of its failures.

"A realistic and incremental approach is now being developed to address these matters over the longer term, beginning with a manageable number of key priorities," the department wrote to Fraser.


With a report from CTV's Graham Richardson and files from The Canadian Press

 

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Why am I not surprised? We used to say that CCG was screwed up, but Fisheries was worse! Once they moved CCG into DFO, they were truly screwed, DFO used to divert funds for the CCG to keep other projects running, spent very little on the fleet, sold off new vessels, took both good ice breakers/buoy tenders from the west coast and replaced them with clapped out ships that had to be sold off and then they had to send a replacement vessel of the same class as the ones that were taken from the West Coast!! Also DFO management did their very best to destroy any Esprit de’ Corp in the guard by trying to prevent us from using the CCG crest, only because everyone from top to bottom in CCG continued to defy the directives did the DFO management finally relent. 

The East coast decided on building British designed Arun class lifeboats, despite the fact that the British were retiring all of their as the design was obsolete. Luckily the West Coast insisted on the excellent US designed 47’ Lifeboat, unfortunately they gave the contract to a yard in Kingston, Ontario who had never built an aluminum boat before!!! The first 2 were so poorly built, they had to pull the contract and give it to a West coast yard that had the experience to build such craft.

Average time for a overtime check has been running around 3-6 months, they screwed your pay so badly that everyone was afraid when an unexpected cheque would arrive. They overpaid my assistant and then took the money back in December without notification, screwing their Christmas and breaking a few HR rules along the way. They screwed my pay, wanted money from me, I told them to issue a new T4 slip as per Treasury Board policy, they refused, because issuing a new T4 slips triggers a report to the AG office. Compensation office was so bad that we had bomb threats in the headquarters building from disgruntled employees.

I miss being part of the guard on a emotional level, but I sure don’t miss the management.     

 

[MarkOttawa]

More:

Aging vessels hurting Coast Guard, Fraser says
Auditor-General says the problems rest with the agency's biggest and oldest ships
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070213.wauditor0213/BNStory/National/home

Sheila Fraser told reporters that the problems rest with the agency's biggest and oldest ships, and she called on the Coast Guard to "decide on a few of the most urgent priorities and then get the job done."..

Icebreakers are designed to last 30 years, but they will be 40- to 48-year-old by the time the Coast Guard replaces its own vessels in the next decade [emphasis added]. The Auditor-General said there are already delays in obtaining replacement vessels out of $276-million in funding awarded by the previous government in 2005.

"The current replacement schedule is already becoming outdated and unrealistic," the report said. "The existing schedule indicates most vessels will be replaced long after they have exceeded their estimated useful lives."

A series of costly snafus
AG blasts coast guard for long list of intractable problems
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/558920.html

Her report details a long list of intractable problems.

One of the biggest is the age of the fleet.

At the time of the accident, the St-Laurent was already 32 years old, two years past its recommended lifespan. It is now 37. Almost a third of the coast guard’s vessels are over 30, and another 18 per cent are between 25 and 29 [emphasis added].

As a result, maintenance on the aging vessels is becoming more costly and difficult. To make matters worse, the agency is doing a poor job of managing that maintenance...

Coast guard failing in its duty: Fraser
http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=10647&sc=89

No contest on AG's coast guard critique: Hearn
Minister lays blame with former Liberal government
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2007/02/14/coast-guard.html
(Well he would, wouldn't he--but what about that silly Conservative election promise to build armed naval icebreakers?  Just build them for the CCG.)

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Greg Weston gets vicious in the Toronto Sun. I wonder why he doesn't mention that the root of the CCG's problems is under-funding by the government for years.  Another typical example of Canadian drive-by journalism.

Coast Guard in sea of red (This refers not to the CCG's need of funding but to the losses it is costing taxpayers.)
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Weston_Greg/2007/02/14/3616213.html

...
Which brings us to the Canadian Coast Guard, a once proud organization that sounds more like a ship o' fools operating under the motto: The more things change, the more they get worse.

At issue is an annual expenditure of almost $600 million to keep an aging fleet of rustbuckets [and why, pray tell, might the vessels be "rustbuckets"?] at sea, and to maintain manned lighthouses and other traditional navigational aids which mariners are ignoring more with each passing satellite.

Audited most recently in 2000 and again in 2002, the agency appears to have a near-perfect score in not correcting problems identified by the auditor general.

The latest AG's findings read like the log of the Good Ship Boondoggle. The icebreaker Louis St. Laurent's missing fuel-pump repair instructions led to faulty fuel-pump repairs that caused an engine to go berserk, costing taxpayers $6 million.

Another missing instruction manual aboard the Coast Guard vessel Alfred Needler led to another wrong engine repair, this time spewing large quantities of oil into the main engine exhaust stack that caught fire, burned up part of the ship, and cost the public purse another $1.3 million.

The Coast Guard's repairs to the drinking-water tanks on two of its vessels saw the original $56,000 tab balloon to $1.6 million.

But not to worry. The Coast Guard has a hi-tech plan to fix everything. The "maintenance information management system," among other things, is supposed to keep track of ships' repair, and all those elusive manuals. Approved in 1997 to be implemented by 2000 at an estimated cost of $7.9 million, the system is now scheduled for completion around 2011, at least 160% over budget.

In the meantime, if there is one SOS the Coast Guard needs to hear, it is from taxpayers floundering in a sea of red ink.

Hurl.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

A post of mine at The Torch:

What to do with the Canadian Coast Guard?
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-to-do-with-canadian-coast-guard.html

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Colin Parkinson]

A very good assessment and I like the fact that you key in on the “un-sexy” infrastructure roles that CCG plays. Plus you describe the handling of the CCG by DFO in clear if not “polite” terms, my opinion may be a bit stronger as to the damage caused to the CCG by the DFO management. Also you correctly identified Transport Canada’s role as a Policy maker and regulator. In fact my office (Navigable Waters)and boating Safety were both moved intact back to Transport. Emergency Response (oil spill) was split up with the regulatory end coming to Transport and the actual responders being left at CCG. Under Transport, CCG was kind of ignored, without any real malice. Under DFO it could be said that the DFO management was malicious and despised the CCG culture.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Colin P: Quite.  DFO policy types are very self-important, and Fisheries is terribly political.  The CCG people I worked with in Ottawa were some of the best and most dedicated colleagues I've ever had--and they were smart.  But I suppose viewed by the rest of DFO much the way the Public Service tends to view the CF.

Mark
Ottawa