The Cost of Success: Rebuilding the Coast Guard’s Arctic Capabilities

By Rob Huebert, 12 November 2025

[This is an excerpt of an article in Vol. 21, No. 2 of Canadian Naval Review. For the full article, click on the link below.]

The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) has traditionally been the neglected marine service within Canada.¹ It plays an essential role for Canada in a vast area of maritime safety and security functions, and it is best known as one of the Canadian government’s most important means of providing stewardship over the Arctic – as evidenced by the appearance of the icebreaker CCGS Amundsen on Canada’s $50 bill. However, while the CCG plays such a crucial role for Canada, it remains underfunded and ignored by Canadian governments, forced to operate an aging fleet. 

       This is about to change with the long-promised fleet recapitalization finally occurring under the National Shipbuilding Strategy.² Specific to the Arctic, the actual construction of two large Polar Class icebreakers began at Seaspan Shipyards in Vancouver on 3 April 2025 and at Helsinki Shipyard in Finland on 20 August 2025.³ In addition, on 8 August 2023, Irving Shipbuilding began the construction of one of the two Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessels (AOPVs) that the CCG will receive. Such an explosion in the construction of vessels needed for operations in the Canadian Arctic would seemingly be only good news; however, unfortunately, while the ships are all needed, the manner and timing of their construction will create significant difficulties and inefficiencies in the future. The frustrating element of this is that the government of Canada fully understands what it is doing but is still proceeding in this manner.

       The current urgency to act is based on the recognition of two core threats to Canadian Arctic security and sovereignty.⁴ The first is the long-term recognition of the impact of climate change. Specifically, the warming of the polar regions means that waterways that have been previously frozen and therefore inaccessible are now expected to be navigable as the ice melts, leading to increasing ship traffic. There is disagreement as to when this will occur and how the melting will take shape, but the political realization that it is occurring is now driving much of Canadian policy, as evidenced in both Our North Strong and Free and Canada’s Arctic Foreign Policy. The second major threat comes from the rapidly devolving international security environment. While many Arctic scholars had seen the Arctic as a region of exceptional peace and cooperation, events since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 have now led to circumstances in which the Arctic is increasingly recognized as a region of escalating tension.⁵ Unlike the Cold War era, when the two belligerents were the United States and its North American Treaty Organization (NATO) allies against the Soviet Union, the growing tension between the NATO alliance, the United States and Russia is compounded by an increasingly Arctic-oriented China. There is considerable debate as to the actual intentions of China and whether it poses a security threat as opposed to a political/economic threat, but there is little dispute that China’s involvement in the region is growing.

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Latest Issue: Canadian Naval Review Vol. 21 No. 2 - Canadian Coast Guard Theme Issue

Our first article, “The Canadian Coast Guard and National Security,” looks at how the CCG can contribute to the national security environment after its move to DND. The second article, “Canada’s Coast Guard at a Crossroads: Safeguarding Shores and Security,” examines how the CCG move to DND can leverage “the CCG’s assets and capabilities to close gaps in the country’s common operating picture and deliver a more holistic national defence.”

The third article, “The Cost of Success: Rebuilding the Coast Guard’s Arctic Capabilities,” outlines that, despite the welcome addition of new ships for the CCG, the Canadian government is perpetuating the boom-and-bust cycle of shipbuilding. As well, the government is ensuring that the CCG will be ironing out wrinkles for years because of (a) the problems inherent in the first-of-class builds, (b) the different maintenance, crewing and training needs for the different ships, and (c) the fact that, once again, the fleet will have to be replaced wholesale in 30(ish) years. The fourth article, “The Canadian Coast Guard Arctic Region: Transforming Arctic Search and Rescue,” takes a close look at how the CCG has worked to improve its relationships in the North, and in this way to improve its response, and the response of local communities, to search-and-rescue operations. The final article, “How US Coast Guard Failures can Inform Canadian Success,” examines the recent USCG experience recapitalizing its fleet. In particular the article focuses on the need for strategic planning and getting the support of politicians, and examines hard lessons the USCG has learned about recruitment – with the hope that the CCG can learn from these lessons.

We don’t have our usual Making Waves commentaries, or “A View from the West” or “Warship Developments” but we do have “Dollars and Sense.” In this issue, “Dollars and Sense” looks at how the move of the CCG to DND affects defence spending, and can contribute to enhanced maritime domain awareness.

In addition to all this great information, we have our usual amazing photos – this time with a focus on CCG red and white ships!

Assuming that the Canada Post strike ends in the near future, the fall issue will be in your mailbox soon. E-subscribers will receive copies soon too. See the Table of Contents here.

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