Larger commercial vessels must check in before entering 200-mile zone
By ALEX BINKLEY
July 12, 2010
Probably no one smiled more than Senator Bill Rompkey when the federal government announced June 21 that commercial vessels must report to the Canadian Coast Guard before entering the 200-mile zone in the Arctic.
The move to mandatory from voluntary reporting began July 1 and applies to all vessels of more than 300 deadweight tons, mirroring the requirements for ships off the east and west coasts.
A year ago, Mr. Rompkey, then chairman of the Senate fisheries committee, called for mandatory reporting in a report on the state of Canada’s jurisdiction in the North. The vessel-reporting rule is known in the Arctic as Nordreg.
Northern Canada Vessel Traffic Services(NORDREG) Zone
Several months later, Transport Minister John Baird said the government would act on the recommendation. Earlier in June, the Commons defence committee called for mandatory ship reporting in the North.
When Fisheries Minister Gail Shea formally announced the July 1 start, she didn’t give Mr. Rompkey any credit. But he was just glad to see the government take the critical step.
“No one focused on this issue before we drew it to everyone’s attention,” the senator said in an interview. However, he was disappointed with the decision to exempt vessels of less than 300 DWT from having to report. Terrorists and criminals could use small vessels to sneak into Canada, he said.
Mr. Rompkey said the government could hardly ignore the idea when the Commons committee came to the same conclusion. “Our report and theirs are strikingly similar,” he said.
At her news conference, Ms. Shea repeated the Harper government’s promise of a new icebreaker and Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships. But she couldn’t say when they might actually be available. In the meantime, the Canadian Coast Guard will have ships working in the North.
Mr. Rompkey advocates establishing a coast guard division for the North rather than running it from Sarnia, Ont., and arming some of its ships so they can properly protect the Arctic zone.
The mandatory rule probably will have little impact for the time being. Last year, 150 ships sailed in the Canadian zone and all reported to the coast guard, Ms. Shea said. Failure to do so could lead to fines up to $100,000.
The big challenge for Canada will come if a freighter decides to sail from Asia to Europe via the Northwest Passage. It could skip reporting in claiming the waterway is international and not internal waters as Canada maintains.
The coast guard says it will also use aircraft to patrol the zone to watch for any rule-breakers. It can also track ships by satellite.
Last year, Parliament passed legislation to expand Canada’s Arctic zone to 200 nautical miles. The military, coast guard and other federal agencies have conducted annual exercises in the region to reinforce Canada’s sovereignty claim.
In addition to ships of more than 300 tonnes, the reporting requirement applies to vessels towing or pushing a vessel if the combined gross tonnage of the vessels is 500 gross tons, ships carrying a pollutant or dangerous goods as cargo, or vessels towing or pushing a vessel carrying a pollutant or dangerous goods as cargo.
The Commons committee report noted that Canada’s legal title to its Arctic territories is well established and the region faces no immediate military threat. Climate change, increased ship traffic, resource exploitation and the lack of sustained political and diplomatic attention to the Arctic present the main security challenges, the report said.
Canada needs to increase its presence in the region and ensure it knows what is going under the water and ice, the committee added. Ottawa also needs to settle aboriginal land claims in the North so the First Nations are fully engaged in protecting the region, the report stated.
It also said the timeline for the delivery of the new icebreaker, the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships and the navy’s Joint Support Ships “is falling significantly behind schedule.”
The committee asked the government for a response to its recommendations, which should come this fall. It’s a document that should command a lot of attention.