Kitsilano Coast Guard Station

FED UP!

Im fed up with listening to the MPs pointing the finger at the Coast Guard for approving and recommending the closure of the Kitsilano Coast Guard Station.

THIS IS NOT THE TRUTH!!

The Coast Guard was consulted about the closure and the answer was "lives will be at risk". The Joint Rescue center was consulted on this matter and their answer to this closure was "live will be at risk".

THE COAST GUARD DID NOT SUPPORT AND DOES NOT CURRENTLY SUPPORT THIS CLOSURE!! PERIOD!!

There are major holes in the defense that mariners are not at anymore risk now then before the closure due to once again not publicizing the truth. They are relying on the volunteer based Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (RCMSAR) to fill the gaps. a volunteer group of weekend heros playing search and rescue. I wouldn't want someone who pretends to be a doctor on the weekends treating me, nor do I want someone playing hero assist me on the water. These people should have stood up and said that they are a support agency to the Coast Guard, and not volunteering to do peoples jobs for free, there's a name for this, SCABS!!

There was an incident last summer involving the death of two RCMSAR volunteers that was swept under the rug very quickly that is directly associated with lack of training. This unit should never have been training in the the skukumchuck narrows in the first place when this vessel went over trapping two members underneath. The capsize reversal system had not been maintained properly and malfunctioned leaving the vessel overturned. Why? Who is in charge of maintaining RMCSAR vessels, Coast Guard vessels are on a regular maintenance schedule maintained by the boatshop. A second RCMSAR vessel arrived on scene and entered the same location where the first boat should not have been, took a large wave which sent another member on the rescue boat flying into the bow box, breaking his leg. This is textbook lack of training!!

Now there are two people trapped under a vessel and one severely injured. At this point the Coast Guard dive team from Sea Island hovercraft base was on route and about 40 minute out from being on scene. RCMSAR decided to start to tow the overturned vessel to shore. With a dive team on route there is a protocol NOT TO TOW AN OVERTURNED VESSEL!! An overturned vessel being towed creates nothing short of a washing machine effect underneath. What if one or both of these members were knocked unconscious, face up in an air pocket?? And now are being drowned by towing this vessel?? plausible? yes! Protocol would have been to secure the vessel and wait for the dive team to dive the vessel and make the recovery, maybe they were in and air pocket and could have been extracted. That is what trained, Coast Guard Rescue specialists would have done in the same situation, aside from never been training in the skookimchuck conditions in the first place.

They have not been honest about the rescue coverage they now have for the port of Vancouver, Burrard Inlet and false creek claiming Sea Island can cover the void left by Kitsilano. Sea Islands Hovercraft in the best case scenario is 35 minutes to false creek, This is if the craft is sitting at Sea Island. They failed to mention that the hovercraft is dispatched to SAR calls as far North as Squamish, up to Seachelt, across the strait to Nanaimo, Victoria and throughout the golf Islands. Sea Islands calls also span the Fraser River all the was to Pitt Lake making transit time to a call in burrard Inlet up to and exceeding 1 1/2 hours. The Hovercraft also assists in the management and maintenance of nautical navigational aids in these regions making their response even more prolonged. I feel this has been omitted and is very pertinent information in explaining the expansive duties and coverage of the Hovercraft Unit.

RCMSAR claims to have a 20 minute dispatch time...... ha ha! hooooo! that's rich!
From the time a call is put out to the on call members, transit to where they are moored, having at least three members arrive and mobilize to the scene can vary. Kits station, 2 minutes or less... flat.... 24hrs a day, 365! RCMSAR is going to pick up the slack of 400 calls a year, i'm sure their employers will grow tired of someone leaving two, three times a day, or coming in bagged from being out all night.

The fact is RCMSAR is a waste of donated money. they just spent $600,00 on a top of the line recue boat out of deep cove to do 30 calls in a year, half of which are picking up tows from Coast Guard units to free up the professionals for another call. A $600,000 tow boat....... for 30 calls......
The most interesting part is equipping this vessel with jet drive propulsion at an exorbit cost, no Coast Guard SAR vessel uses jet drive!! They have made the claim that they can make shallow water rescues, that intake would suck a basketball size boulder off the bottom in a heartbeat. Nothing could be worse then jet drive in heavy swell either, sucking up air off the frothy breaking waves really doesn't get you far. Why would they choose jet drive you might ask? How about the fact that Sean Brushett works for the company that sells the jet units. Some would call this a conflict of interest, I call it, well, A CONFLICT OF INTEREST!!

It's about time there was some truth shed on this topic.

 

The decision to close the coast guard station at Kits needs some explanation for sure...

 

Hard to listen to someone asking for the truth who makes many statements that are easily proven to be false and misleading as follows:

1. Coast Guard management did determine where to make cuts, full stop!

2. Volunteer rescuers are the norm worlwide and within Canada and are highly trained, professional crews performing at exceptionally high levels without pay. This poster will purposely not mention Europe where almost all marine rescue is conducted by volunteer crews (please search RNLI, KNRM, or any other European Countries marine rescue network). www.rnli.org, www.knrm.nl, www.ssrs.se, www.seenotretter.de, www.coastguard.com.au , www.coastguard.co.nz , You will see that posters with truth will provide you with a method to check and evaluate their facts. Not only are these volunteers protecting the busiest waterways in the world, they are the world leaders in marine rescue training and technology. The last 3 Canadian Coast Guard Motor lifeboats are based on designs from the RNLI (UK Volunteers). The poster would like you to assume then that because volunteers can be and are highly trained and effective, that somehow that takes away from or challenges the paid Coast Guard and creates a rift. There are literally hundreds of models around the province whereby paid and volunteer crews work side by side very effectively and for the benefit of those in need.

3. Scabs are people who take Union jobs away from people with non union wages hoping to displace the union workers for their own gain. These volunteers get nothing in return so hardly scabs.

4. Throwing in the deaths of two heroes first of all demonstrates the cowardice of this poster and the complete lack of knowledge of anything related to it. There is an ongoing Transport Canada and internal investigation underway. In addition, this poster who is obviously an old retired commenter will again mention such things and then not note the fact that the Coast Guard actually rolled an identical boat in these same waters and has flipped boats on several occassions including deaths of crew in Newfoundland. This speaks to the fact that accidents happen, mistakes are made whether paid or unpaid. Every week, firefighters die, police officers and paramedics die. Sometimes they relate to pure accidents, some times there are mistakes made, and in every instance they are tragic and we owe a dead of gratitude to all those who give their life so others may live.

5. The fact is, a new Coast Guard lifeboat costs in range of $3M / each. Also neglect that using a mix of volunteer and paid crews, you obtain a far better coverage and safety level for all mariners. Again, the model provides a much faster overall response time to the majority of incidents. Consider some math, 25,000km coast line (BC alone) and 10 paid Coast Guard stations.

6. The final interesting point is the attack on jet drives which really places this poster in range of old, uniformed, and out of date . If the writer did any research, they would know a few things as follows: The US Coast Guard is replacing all if it's 41 foot boats with 300 brand new jet drive boats (Check out US Coast Guard RMB). The RNLI has just introduced it's new standard class of lifeboat (Shannon Class), a jet drive unit. The KNRM as well as New Zealand has used these extensively for many years with huge success. In shallow water, you have no propellers to strike rocks (which was a problem for Kits boat a few years ago when they hit rocks and had to be rescued). Again, just speaks to the fact that even paid crews can have problems, nothing related to training or abilities. You might suck up some sand which it is designed to withstand (props not so much) but grates cover Jet intakes. In addition, you take out a huge danger as no propeller to hit someone with. Jet boats can also maneuvre much better including sideways and are used extensively in much rougher water than we will ever see.

Please take a look at a few youtube vidoes:





People with real facts will present them to you.

Canadians are very lucky to have a very well trained, professional, paid Coast Guard as well as volunteer crews who together provide a very good level of service. Nobody asked to have this base closed nor did they push for it but going after those who volunteer to help continues to show your lack of true care for the people in trouble. Volunteers saved over 150 lives last year alone. Perhaps you would wish to explain to their families why they are not important.

In addition, your complete falsification of the facts as noted above and inability to acknowledge to the readers any other facts, indicates a significant bias and hatred that is unfounded and hence calls into question any and all comments you have made.

 

... if there's a public safety issue regarding the closing of this coast guard base (i don't believe there is) the provincial government has a lawful duty to fill the void and put safety measures in place. christy's decision to do nothing proves there isn't a genuine public safety issue ...

 

FEDUP, where are you getting this insider information on the accident? I assume you're referring to the deaths of Angie Nemeth and Beatrice Sorensen back in June 2012. None of the news articles on the incident cite anything about lack of training and protocol not being followed.

Are you a volunteer or employee for Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (Coast Guard Auxiliary)? Family or friend of one of the victims? Disgruntled coast guard without a job?

On another note, the closure brings into question whether or not patrolling our waters should be a federal responsibility. Both the City of Vancouver and the Province of BC have already issued statements to the federal government protesting the closure.

As mentioned above, the coast guard is under the jurisdiction of the federal government. The provincial government has already voiced their concern, which is all that they can do.

 

... while the coast guard may be a federal operation, public safety in british columbia is a provincial matter under provincial jurisdiction. if there is a safety issue in bc that the feds can't or won't address, the province has an obligation to deal with it ...

 

Haha!!
Slow Clap Brushett........ Slow Clap.......

 

Christy Clark's ultimatum for the Harper government: No Kitsilano Coast Guard Station, no expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline. http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/...feds-no-kits-coast-guard-station-no-pipeline/

 

A crew member on board a freighter in English Bay died of a heart attack Thursday evening. Could he have been saved if the Kitsilano Coast Guard Base were still open? http://www.theprovince.com/health/F...+Kitsilano+base+still+open/8231567/story.html