National Post
Coast guard patrol ships to be pulled from service 'sooner than expected,' amid pressures from new security mandate
Stephanie Taylor , Christopher Nardi
Fri, November 14, 2025 at 1:00 a.m. PST
6 min read
The CCGS Corporal Kaeble is sometimes used to patrol the waters off New Brunswick as part of the New Brunswick RCMP's Coastal and Airport Watch Program.
OTTAWA — A long-troubled fleet of coast guard patrol ships that the Canadian government paid hundreds of millions to build will be pulled from service “sooner than expected,” an internal document shows.
It comes as the civilian agency braces for more demands under its new surveillance mandate from Prime Minister Mark Carney, who announced back in June that it would be folded into the National Defence Department.
Newly released documents obtained by National Post detail the internal deliberations that took place inside the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in the immediate days following the Prime Minister’s Office confirming it would be reassigning responsibility for the Canadian Coast Guard to the defence portfolio.
Coast guard patrol ships to be pulled from service 'sooner than expected,' amid pressures from new security mandate
The change came as Carney announced his government would accelerate the country’s defence spending, in part by shifting the coast guard to a more security-focused role, which would allow it to be counted towards its NATO spending target.
Following that June announcement, an internal meeting was held between the fisheries department’s national enforcement officer, responsible for overseeing its conservation and protection efforts, and a senior coast guard official about the impacts that shift could have on the agency’s role in that task.
According to a set of meeting notes, the coast guard official flagged that capacity could be an issue, given its new role and an aging fleet.
“New (Canadian Coast Guard) security mandate is expected to create new pressures from (other government departments) to increase use of (Canadian Coast Guard) platforms for border and security purposes,” one excerpt read, released to National Post under federal access-to-information legislation
Read more:
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/coast-guard-p ... 16433.html