Capacity of Canada's icebreaker fleet woefully inadequate

摘要

To begin with a telling fact, Canada has the longest coastline in the world - 243,000 kms in all. You have the formidable, faraway Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean. To the south, the mighty St. Lawrence/Great Lakes corridor, also known as the Fourth Seacoast, penetrates deep into the heartland of North America. To different degrees, winter's annual onslaught has an impact on maritime trade in each of the regions. Relatively little on the Pacific Coast. Substantial on the Atlantic Coast. Seasonal in the Arctic, where most commercial shipping is restricted to the increasingly ice-free four-month summer shipping window. But the impact can be enormous on the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence waterway through which transits an estimated 230 million tonnes of cargo annually. Within this overall context, the icebreaker fleet of the Canadian Coast Guard performs vital services to keep navigation channels open.