Transport Canada and the Certificate of Recognition
Pressure is building
Authored by Martin Leduc
August 15, 2013
I
love what I do, working on ships as a Marine Engineer.
It's hard to classify one-self, but judging from recommendations I have
received fairly consistently over the years, I say I'm certainly "average" in my
work performance. With liking what I do, and being somewhat successful, it's
little wonder that I wish to progress in my craft, move up the ranks, and
achieve a higher Certificate of Competency (CoC).
However, "moving up"
under Canada's regulatory regime is fraught with "landmines" and numerous
obstacles. The sheer size of the project to upgrade's one CoC, is exhaustive to
think of. I have written an article detailing my observation of the numerous
problems with it, which
you can read here. Upgrading a CoC in Canada is a very
big problem that affects all Marine Engineers, and has resulted in a large
amount of capable Engineers not being able to jump through onerous regulatory
hurdles, and move up the rank ladder, resulting in a "ticket vacuum" on board
commercial ships operating in Canada.
Uneven playing field
The certification system in Canada is not the same as other countries. As a
result, I propose that a large majority of Canada's future Certificate of
Competency, Class 1 and 2 at first, will have been trained abroad, migrating
into the Canadian licensing system at the upper certification levels. I believe
the writing is on the wall, this stream of certificate issuance - the
recognition of foreign issued Standards of Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW)
compliant CoC - will be how Canadian ship operators will access nearly all of
their current, and future senior Engineering Officer needs onboard.
As
such, there is increasing pressure on Transport Canada to adopt the
Certification of Recognition model, used by many nations, guided by the
International Maritime Organization's (IMO) STCW10. I think this is the
inevitable, and is in my view, logical. I would expect it to be the
policy of Transport Canada in
the very near future. You can read yourself what the
STCW2010 (Manila Convention, page 12, Regulation I/10), to which Canada is
signatory, says about this
subject.
The problem with this plan, is that I am not seeing any changes
to the way Canadian trained engineers are certified, which is far more
burdensome than other nations issuing the same Certificate of Competency.
Another words, I have no problems competing with foreign trained engineers, but
please Transport Canada, give me an even ground to compete on!
Kicking the can down the road
It is not hard to imagine that a Certificate of Recognition is to the benefit of Canadian ship operators, for the next 5-10 years perhaps. During that time, operators will have access to STCW CoCs, that are very motivated to succeed in their new country of immigration.
When you start a business, you are committed to getting it off the ground, and
moving an entire family a long distance is no different of an enterprise. This
means that these immigrants to Canada will take any work, subpar conditions, and
subpar wages, to make their "business case" succeed; I would too. This is a
temporary blessing for ship operators; they will have access to a "pliable"
workforce holding Transport Canada approved senior Certificate of Recognition - which
is what they need to run their fleets - for now anyways.
The lack of
changes to the Canadian CoC system is worrisome, and will be again the problem
down the road, for these immigrants, once, they too, want to move up the ranks
and / or get a full fledge Canadian CoC. Another words, we would just be "kicking
the can" down the road; the same problems with Transport Canada "clunky"
certification process that plagues Canadian trained Marine Engineers now, will
also affect foreign trained ones, further down the line.
The
impacts
In the
meantime, it will be even more challenging for the "locally" trained Marine
Engineers, who will not be able to upgrade, because it is just not worth the
investment. After all, why would a fifty year old 3rd Class Engineer spend two
years of intense family disruption, great financial burden, "just" to get a 2nd
Class CoC, when there will be downward pressure on 2nd Class wages, because of a
temporary influx of "young" Certificates of Recognition around?
I anticipate we are on the cusp of Transport Canada issuing Certificate of
Recognitions as a matter of routine. This will only be a temporary relief to the shortage of
Marine Engineer for seagoing roles in Canada. Until industry and Transport
Canada address the underlying issues, there will always be
pressure to find qualified engineers to sail ships in Canada. Transport Canada needs to
streamline their certification process to the equivalent to other nations
issuing CoCs. Industry, for its part, needs to increase their remuneration
packages for engineer, to make the arduous process of upgrading their CoC, a
worthwhile investment.
Of course, point of view hinges on the fact that the Government of Canada is indeed interested in keeping a "Canadian" fleet and its expertise; which from the signals I see from Ottawa, this is not an identifiable priority.