Don't close Kitsilano Coast Guard Base

I was a member of the CG for 13 years and among other jobs served as a Rescue specialist and Rescue diver at the hovercraft. In fact my CG career started out at the Kitsilano base. I am quite aware of the role the base plays in the lower mainland, the capabilities and limitations of the Hovercraft base, Coast Guard auxiliaries, other responders and the internal politics of the CG.

History of the base

Kitsilano was built in WWII and operated by the RCAF as a Crashboat station, with vessels based on the Canadian powerboat design (pictured above) and 40' wooden launches. Latere they were equipped with 40's steel Crashboats, similar to the Blackduck pictured below.

In 1962 the base, boats (Mallard and Moorhen) and crews were turned over to the newly formed CG. This station played a vital role on this coast providing Search and Rescue (SAR) coverage as far away as Northern Vancouver Island. The base also served as a HQ for the SAR branch and public office for the Office of boating Safety (OBS).

As the rest of the CG grew, the station SAR area was reset as Vancouver harbour, Indian Arm, Port Moody, English bay, Howe sound, lower half of Sunshine coast and halfway across the strait. This area is heavily used by the boating public, many with very few skills or knowledge of the hazards year round, making the base one of the busiest in Canada. By this time the station was equipped with 3 boats and one inflatable. the main vessel was the CCGC Osprey.

SAR issues Impacts and Consequences

So far the CG has stated that closing the base will not effect response time. I will give them the benefit of the doubt I try really hard to believe they are being misinformed. Their (evolving) argument has been that a new hovercraft is coming, except they neglected to mention it’s replacing an older existing machine (CCGC Penac) so the ability of the hovercraft base does not change at all. In fact my sources tell me that at present there are no plans to increase crewing to offset the loss of Kit’s base. This leaves the entire area (approx 77km north to south and 66km from Indian Arm to mid strait) dependent on 1 full time vessel. The Hovercrafts main SAR task is to cover the airport, it can’t do that while up Indian Arm. The loss of Kits means also that the hovercraft will have less time to do it’s other core work which includes navigation aid repair or carry out the training the dive team requires. Maintenance on the craft will go up, leading to more downtime and more costs. Plus they will have to call in crews on overtime if the craft gets called to the far edge of a SAR zone on a long call, all of which erodes the savings claimed by the CG.

The station also operates as a direct contact point for boaters to speak to CG personal and receive advice and even minor help, this is one of those intangibles that is difficult to measure directly, but literally Kitsilano is only place in the lower mainland where boaters can easily speak and interact with CG members.

Over the years the crew at the base have been instrumental is saving many lives of bridge jumpers who were witnessed by crew members jumping into the water and the crews were able to respond and save the person life before any 911 call or Rescue Coordination Centre tasking could be issued. The station crews have also been an important assets to other government departments supporting them when those department needed vessel support or inspections in the area.

The other resource the CG mentioned is the Coast Guard Auxiliary or as now called on the west coast the Royal Canadian Marine-SAR RRCM-SAR, this is a volunteer organization which I have worked with many times and I respect many of it’s members greatly, however I also know their limitations. Most have jobs and young families, it’s one thing to be torn away from those you love to save a life, but much of the SAR life is more mundane, 12 hr searches for someone who may or may not have jumped off a ferry, going out at night to find an idiot who brought more beer than gas, or scrambling to a call only to be stood down after 40 minutes. The RCM-SAR boats will be called out far more often and that will place more wear and tear on their crews and boats. The boats can be fixed but if you begin to burn out your core volunteers, then trouble will follow, as sadly happened just recently with the loss of 2 volunteers.I also understand that the vessel used by them was missing key parts contributing to their deaths and serious injury of one of the other volunteers trying to rescue them.

To put this incident in perspective, the RCM-SAR has lost as many volunteers now as the fulltime CG has on this coast since the inception of the CG despite the RCM-SAR have much less hours at sea or exposure to associated risks.

Another aspect is that there is little support for volunteers dealing with tragedy and shock of seeing dismembered bodies. As a fulltime rescuer it was hard enough and I did my best to shield the volunteers from that side ensuring it was CG crew that retrieved the bodies, not the volunteers. What mechanism have been put into place to support the volunteers with the inevitable critical stress that accompany this type of work? By making them the primary responders and not supporting them, the government may be opening themselves up to future lawsuits.

It seems that certain elements within RCM-SAR have “empire-building” designs at the expense of full time SAR crews and the public. The tension is already beginning to be felt at the boat level and mistrust is forming. Very soon CG crews will be loath to teach skills to the volunteers under fears that they too may lose their job. There has been talk of placing a RCM-SAR boat in Vancouver. With uncertain economic times and the high cost of living here, the RCM-SAR may find it difficult to find and hold onto fit, healthy and experienced people.

The CG has also pointed out there are other “response” vessels in the area. These would be the police boat, Vancouver Lifeguards, Port Metro and fireboats. Each of these vessels has responsibility to their own areas and task, while they will respond if manned and free, the CG can not guarantee their availability or their future. Vancouver and other municipalities are all struggling with climbing deficits and future of the fireboats, marine squad and lifeguard boat are in question. None of these vessels are available for prolonged searches or incidents. Not to mention they would not be responding to calls in Howe Sound or Sunshine Coast.

Cost saving at what expense?

The “smoke signals” and the painfully clumsy attempts to look like they care about feedback from the marine users make it seems the CG is determined to off-load SAR onto volunteers regardless of the costs. In fact this is not the first time CG management has tried to shut the Kit’s base down and also tried to shut the hovercraft base down. Imagine wanting to shut the 2 busiest bases in Canada? It makes it clear that SAR is not a priority with the regional management.

In fact within the CG has been a long simmering feud between the SAR side (small ships) and navigation aid maintenance side (big ships). The management, much which came from the big ships, will sacrifice everything and anything to save the large ships and to them SAR is messy and unpredictable, whereas navigation aid work is very easy to plan and work around.

Flawed data driving this decision

I have spent many years working on these SAR resources and others although this area. I know through experience that Kitslano plays a key role in the SAR response. The base is the victim of it’s own success. The SAR reports used to justify this decision don’t even begin to tell the story. Many of the “mundane” calls are such because the base crew was able to stop the chain of events that lead to more serious incidents. During the summer there will be multiple calls at the same time in different areas, it was not uncommon for all the SAR resources in the area to be working different calls.

I also am aware that the CCG has been trying to justify their position using statistics. Most of these are gathered using the “Incident reports” I have read many of these reports on incidents that I have been involved in and they don’t capture all of the data. It’s almost impossible to measure something that did not happen, many “minor” incidents I was involved in would have been fatal had we not intervened early on. Relying on this data is going to give the government an incomplete picture of what will happen in the future.

Future of SAR

While technology is helping to reduce the “Search” in SAR, the growing and changing population of Vancouver is going to put even more pressure on our SAR resources. It’s a fact that most immigrants coming to Canada have less water safety training than average Canadians and increasing economic status is going to have these people boating and recreating on the water in growing numbers, leading to significant increases in incidents. The need to rescue and help these people is going to continue to grow, putting strain on the current resources. Another factor leading to more incidents is that the Office of Boating Safety has been significantly reduced and will not being doing public education for boating safety, this will mean more people without proper information out on the water.

Land issue related to the base

In 1992 the old base was set on fire by a burning pleasure craft, (which would have been avoided had CG placed booms around the pilings) the CG was forced grudgingly to rebuild the base, but to a smaller footprint. The current site is built on fireproof pilings. As part of the DFO permit requirements the CG was obliged to build and maintain a habitat compensation reef just inshore of the base, which limited the size the rebuilt base. Even if the government sells the base, they may still be on the hook to maintain the reef or work that into any sales agreement which limits the resale value.

Another lingering issue is that the base would likely be considered a contaminated site and require extensive cleanup before it can be divested. Also I believe the land may be subject to a lands claim with the local First Nations and at the very least the sale will require extensive consultations with the band. All of the above means it is likely that the government will lose money on the sale of the base. If a sale goes through and later the government decides it will need a local base, Public Works will be hard pressed to find another location so well suited and even if they did, the price would be astronomical.

The cost to the government and the CPC

This government made a promise that the cuts to government would not affect frontline services. Cutting Kitslano is a direct reduction in an important and highly visible service. No matter how many media lines the CG writes and how they dress this issue up it is a steaming bucket of manure and it will land right into your government lap. The public is not buying any of the stuff the CG is selling and already it is hurting the government with people that normally would support the Conservative party.

Hollow and after the fact consultation

What has become clear in recent days is that the CG did not openly consult with anyone about the closures and the recent “stakeholder” meetings by the Minister was clearly window dressing as despite clear opposition from those stakeholders, the Minister went on to publicly state an hour later that the base will still close, which is a slap in the face of people that went to great effort to make time for the Minister on short notice. The damage control efforts by the Minister and CCG management have done nothing but sow mistrust with the marine community and the people that supported this government.

A mistake that will be hard and expensive to fix.


Closing this base is a bad idea and sometimes bad ideas take on a life of their own. The people involved realize it's a bad idea but can't find an honourable way to extract themselves from it. If the government changes it's mind and leaves the base open, then the opposition will pounce on them, some politicians believe that changing your decision is a sign of weakness. Let me say to you it is not. the government makes a huge number of decision and choices everyday, no matter how careful you are, some will turn out to be mistakes. Telling the people that you have listened and changed your plans shows strength and leadership to the people who voted for you and might vote for you. Canadians do not take kindly to any government that fails to listen to them as both the PC and Liberals have found out in the past.

Pride in what exactly?

So the Vancouver gay pride parade has concluded for another year, to be honest I don't attend, but looking at the pictures online and media reports I have to ask myself; Is this really what you want to be proud of? for the most part it appears to be a whole lot of barely dressed people at the best having fun, at the worst making fools of themselves. In fact I ask how much of the crowd is really laughing at you? I certainly feel educated, but not in the message I suspect you wanted.

Now the fact that the parade can be held and supported by the city and sponsors speaks more of the citizens of Vancouver than the gay community (Not to take away from the organizers who must have worked their butts off, well hopefully not literally). Also one can't help but to think of the outrage if there was a "Hetero-sexual pride parade", Hypocrisy is the name of the game in a progressive society after all isn't it?

Before you work yourself in a lather (or leather) I not anti-gay or attempting to gay-bash, I have known many gay people and count a couple as close friends. I take pride in their real accomplishments and respect their work ethic, humanity and other positive traits. the fact that they are attracted to the same sex is more or less immaterial to me, actually I don't really give a damm!!

If you are gay and you want people to respect you and want to be proud of who you are, then do you really want this to represent you? Because I tell you, that is what most people think when they hear "Gay Pride Parade"


So if you disagree with the above, feel free to show me where I am incorrect and pictures showing some of the more positive role models represented in the parade would be useful, here is one of the few I found.

Aftermath

Social media that likely played a part in encouraging the rioters,  is showing them it is a double edge sword. The public is now using Facebook and blogs to out the rioters. You can bet there is some frantic erasing of Facebook pages going on, however that which is posted is never really gone and will come back to haunt them. Already people have lost their jobs and another has lost sponsorship. I could blame it all on a generation which grew up with an expectation of entitlement and lack of consequence, but to be fair there has been riots in our city's past and will likely be more in the future.

What I do like is that people are taking it onto themselves to help correct the wrongs. First was the people who stood up for what's right during the riot, this takes a lot of guts and likely was a spur of the moment thing. But says a lot about their character and understanding what is right and wrong.
The second group are the people who came out the next day to help clean up  the mess and help the businesses. It speaks well of their sense of citizenship.

The third group has a finer line to walk. they are busy outing those responsible. This requires a sense of justice and sense of responsibility not to tar those they can't be sure where responsible. One such sight is this.

I can't not abide or support those who harass the families of those involved. Yes some of the parents failed, but others had done their best to raise their kids and it was the young adults that made the choices they must live with. focus your anger on those who caused the mayhem, but always temper it. It's likely that few will be successfully charged in regards to the riots, but the burden of proof in a civil court is much less and far more likely to be successful.

Behind the scenes the knives are out, seem blogger alexgtsakumis.com is taking aim at the leadership of Vancouver for bungling the riot. Also reports that their budget had been reduced will not help. I am not sure if the Olympic parties had lulled City Hall into a false belief that all would be fine, despite warnings of what was likely to come. The political nastiness is far from over and these decisions will come back to haunt the current administration at the next election.

But for the grace of god go thee

We have been glued to the TV and Internet following the multiple crisis’s in Japan. I haven’t said much on the subject because it’s changing so rapidly. Currently they are saying that around 7,000 known dead and about 10,000 missing. Frankly I was expecting at least 50,000 dead. If the finally number is less than 20,000 then it says volumes about the Japanese building construction, seawalls and evacuation systems.
The whole thing is more real to us in North America than other disasters, as we see a culture much more similar to our own, unlike Haiti which most us could not wrap our heads around prior to their earthquake. We also had a personal connection as well, my niece was in Tokyo during the quake, but has just arrived back home. Now my sister can sleep better!
These people have suffered an 8.9-9.0 scale quake, hundreds of lesser quakes, 7 metre high Tsunami, volcano eruption and a ongoing nuclear crisis. Adding to the misery is snow hampering rescue efforts. In fact Japan moved 2.4m, is 13’ wider and parts dropped by 2’ in elevation. After shocks continue.
What is apparent is that fortitude of the Japanese character is showing through. No mass panics, little or no looting, organizing to help their neighbours. This is a silver lining in a very dark cloud. The recent stuff coming out on Japanese TV and Internet prior to all of this had to make you wonder if the culture was going off the deep end. Lesson learned, don’t judge a people by their entertainers and TV producers! Another interesting note, the city of Kandahar has given $50,000 dollars to the Japanese people, a small but important gesture from a people that owe much to the Japanese.
The nuclear crisis has shown the flaws of the current designs currently in widespread use. I am not a nuke expert but there are better designs out there. It is my understanding that one of the reactors effected was to be de-commissioned shortly and two others later this year. The timing could not be worse for the nuclear industry, many plants are coming up for replacement, and it will be a hard sell now to a public that is rightfully concerned. The bright side is that many lessons are being learned and if the industry can adapt them into newer designs that can operate without much input from humans and go into safe mode when things go wrong. The new designs will have to deal with the storage pond issue as well, which seems to be the main problem.
I fully expect a big push on Humanoid robots that can deal with nuclear accidents within the next decade. Currently our only choice is to rely on the bravery and self-sacrifice of the workers there. The people fighting the fires at the plants know they are shortening their lives and accepting much future pain and struggle. A grim determination sort of courage.

Living in Vancouver, we are all too aware that a major earthquake and Tsunami is part of our future. The geography is likely to preclude a 7m high wave, but a significant one could still hit Vancouver if say part of the seafloor on eastern Vancouver island sluffed down. To give you an idea what a 7m wave would do to Vancouver, I guesstimated the areas that would be covered by colouring blue over the land that would be engulfed.

before



After

Snow day

This Sunday it finally snowed enough here for the kids to toboggan at the local parks (No doubt readers from the east coast would be more than happy to share some of their snow with us!). The kids had a great time. My oldest is a daredevil, the younger is more like mom, cautious but likes the thrill. I would like to tell parents that the blue baby toboggan we used here are a pain because the underside fills up with snow, making it hard to pull.

HMS Hood enters Vancouver

Little history moment, HMS Hood, known mostly for her ill-fated battle against the Bismark, came to Vancouver in 1924, part of a world cruise. At the time the Hood was one of the most powerful warships afloat. She combined the speed of a cruiser and the amour and guns of a battleship and was referred to as a “Battlecrusier”.

While she was in Vancouver, my Grandfather worked on her as an electrician.

This picture is from The Vancouver maritime Museum which has a excellent library and collection ( I volunteered there for 15 years) Do yourself a favour and go visit the museum, it’s a great place for kids and you can tour the St Roch, the inside is nice on a rainy day and in the summer there are events down in the harbour. Check out their main page here.

Some more pictures of the visit here.

Drop-in-crime stats mask darker factors

I think this article does a good job covering the subject. Many police forces stopped bothering with “minor crimes” and only responded to the major ones. In fact the Vancouver police took so much flak for not responding to break in’s where the bad guys had already left, they were forced to change their policies.
I also agree that population age effects crime rates, let’s face it older criminals just won’t be as active as younger ones. However the younger criminals today can be far more violent than the ones from the 60’s, not to mention more tech savy.
I also agree with longer sentences, a criminal in jail is not committing crimes on the outside and frankly people are tired of hearing that a criminal did something bad while on Double-double parole. In regards to rehabilitation of criminals, the success rates are not inspiring. I suggest that we spend our limited resources on the young people who are starting to go bad and stop them from going down the wrong road. We won’t be able to save all of them, but put them in a work/training camp and run them off their feet so they are to tired to get into trouble.