Marine Safety and Security: Transport Canada (TC) and the United States Coast Guard (USCG)

Closing Summary

The 2016-2017 Canada-US Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) Work Plan for Marine Safety and Security is now closed. The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and Transport Canada (TC) will continue exploring opportunities to collaborate and coordinate on marine safety, environmental stewardship, and security regulatory systems for vessels in the Great Lakes and coastal waters.

For instance, in April 2018, with regards to Port State Control (PSC) Inspection, TC approved the policy on inspecting U.S. Lakers. While a standardized process for sharing information was not developed, a policy directive has been developed, published, and entered into force by TC, and the USCG also developed instructions on inspecting Canadian Lakers.

As part of the policy developed by TC for the interval of inspecting US Lakers, and similar instructions developed by the USCG for Canadian Lakers, both parties agreed that joint inspections procedures would not be developed.

Casualty reporting was identified as an emerging issue in 2016, but this initiative has not been pursued by TC and USCG after discussions and review. As a result, the casualty reports are not posted and this item is considered closed. At the same time, collaboration with USCG and TC continues as we work to identify key areas to improve processes and regulatory coordination.

Finally, the USCG and TC have concluded their review of Joint Initial Verification Program practices. It was agreed not to create an OPORDER. Further, the MOU under which the USCG observed TC inspections has been cancelled as the USCG no longer seeks opportunities to observe TC marine inspector activities of select vessels intending to visit US ports in the Great Lakes area.

Regulatory area to be addressed

United States Coast Guard / Transport Canada

Marine Safety and Security: Transport Canada (TC) and the United States Coast Guard (USCG) will work together to coordinate as appropriate their marine safety, environmental stewardship, and security regulatory systems, focusing on both regulations and implementation procedures for vessels in the Great Lakes and coastal waters. Initial consideration will be given to regulations, implementing procedures or practices that pertain to training and certification of seafarers, inspection of foreign vessels, ballast water inspection, and minimum crew complement for coastal shipping on the East and West coasts, and the Great Lakes.

The agencies will continue to collaborate to identify mutually acceptable mechanisms (or practices) that recognize any existing overlap in each agency’s enforcement and inspection regimes, with the goal of minimizing the number of duplicative inspections conducted on vessels operating on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway while maintaining the same level of safety, security, and environmental protection.

Department/Agency

Workstream A: NATIONAL RCC PLAN

Port State Control (PSC) Inspections:

Planned initiatives and sub-deliverables	Date
Explore opportunities to develop TC/USCG standardized processes on sharing Port State Control information to support relevant RCC initiatives, and report on findings for implementation.	July 2016 – December 2018
Identify what information needs to be shared in order to carry out RCC initiatives.	June 2017
Assess legal constraints on sharing this information.	December 2017
Identify hardware, software, and procedural requirements for sharing information.	June 2018
Draft standardized processes to formalize agreement to share designated information and route for signature.	December 2018

Crewing Issues:

The 2010 Manila amendments to the Seafarers’ Training Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) Code entered into force Januar 2012 and revised the international training and certification requirements, but not manning requirements. Consequently, current MOU respecting Mutual Recognition of Domestic Mariner Qualifications may be outdated in regard to terminology and require revision to take into consideration the STCW Manila amendments and Canadian Regulations. Namely the Marine Personnel Regulations and the 2013 revision of the United States credentialing regulations.

Planned initiatives and sub-deliverables	Date
Update the 2002 MOU respecting Mutual Recognition of Domestic Mariner Qualifications	September 2016 – October 2017
Initial Canada-US MOU discussions and work plan development.	September 2016
Final joint review	March 2017
Sign-off of MOU	July 2017
MOU implementation	October 2017

Emerging Issue:

The USCG and TC held a meeting with Stakeholders on May 4, 2016. During this meeting the stakeholders brought up many issues, of which most were outside the scope of the RCC and will be dealt with individually by the USCG or TC, as appropriate. One issue necessitated further discussion and will be analyzed and potentially included in a subsequent edit of this work plan.

Planned initiatives and sub-deliverables	Date
Post casualty reporting – currently vessels are required to report to US and CA, which can be burdensome. Explore options for reducing/ eliminating unnecessary redundancy.	September 2016 – December 2016

Workstream B: GREAT LAKES & ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY

Port State Control (PSC) Inspections:

Joint PSC inspections were carried out in Montreal as part of the RCC initial Joint Action Plan. The PSC Pilot Project carried out under the RCC Initial Joint Action Plan indicated that Joint PSC inspections are feasible and can be accommodated by vessel crews. Based on lessons learned through the pilot project, routinely conducting joint examination in Montreal is resource intensive for USCG and would not provide a significant advantage over mutual recognition initiatives included in the GL & SLS RCC report recommendations. Based on the earlier work, there may be a benefit to conducting occasional joint PSC exams at industry’s request.

Planned initiatives and sub-deliverables	Date
Review the issue of granting partial USCG PSC exam credit for vessels that have recently completed an Enhanced Seaway Inspection (ESI).	March 2015 – March 2016
Update MOA Addendum II – Foreign Vessel Safety Environmental and Material Requirements Prior to Great Lakes/Seaway Entry	March 2016 – August 2016
Develop D9 instruction for guidance on granting partial USCG PSC exam credit	August 2016 – January 2017
USCG/TC/SLS review & comment	January 2017 – April 2017
Implementation as appropriate	April 2017
Review the issue of granting a partial ESI credit for vessels that have recently completed a Transport Canada - Paris Memorandum Of Understanding - Port State Control and USCG-Port State Control exam.	March 2015 – March 2016
Explore the possibility of developing and implementing procedures to conduct joint USCG/TC PSC Inspections at Industry request.	March 2015 – March 2017
Validate findings of the 2012 PSC inspection pilot project. If applicable, develop and implement appropriate tools (policy and procedures).	May 2015 – March 2017
Develop policy based on findings as appropriate	March 2017 – December 2017
Develop associated procedures as needed	January 2018 – March 2018
Implementation as appropriate	March 2018

Flag State Implementation:

June 2015 – March 2017

Planned initiatives and sub-deliverables	Date
Development of Work Plan	May 2015
USCG and TC to work on instructions and processes to harmonize laker inspections.	March 2017
Identify training needs, from above stages, for TC and USCG inspections, and implement where needed.	March 2017

Joint Initial Verification Program:

March 2015 – February 2016

Update 2004 International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS) MOU to reflect current Joint Initial Verification Program (JIVP) practices.

Planned initiatives and sub-deliverables	Date
Develop updated draft OPORDER	July 2016
Legal review of OPORDER by USCG and TC	November 2016
Final review of revised OPORDER by USCG and TC	February 2017
Finalize and sign OPORDER	February 2017