By Glen Farrough

The Canadian Coast Guard has recently announced its intention to de-staff automated lightstations.

The first thing you should know is that “automated” just means that the light is powered by an independent power source, usually a bank of batteries attached to a solar panel. That’s all the batteries do. That’s automation.

The lightkeepers, on the other hand, do everything else. Lightkeepers are trained weather observers, providing mariners and aviators flying over our waters with scheduled reports, special weather reports when conditions worsen and updates on request.

They are the eyes and ears and, occasionally, welcoming arms of Canada’s West Coast, where there would otherwise be only a blurry view from a salt-encrusted or rain-soaked video camera.

De-staffed stations have no human presence, no ability to contact the outside world and say, “There be trouble here.”

Some of the automated weather equipment has even been known to malfunction (blow away) when the weather turns bad. Lightkeepers keep on working in all conditions. 

There is a need for staffed lightstations in remote areas (and remote can be a mile from the city if you’re a hypothermic kayaker), where so many of us haul freight, fish, travel, operate charter and scheduled airlines, run fish camps, operate tours, rent boats, recreate and otherwise contribute to our economy.

I don’t want to rely on video cameras to take care of my friends and fellow citizens.

Staffed lightstations are there 24/7, 365 days a year.

I want people I can trust to keep me informed of the weather, to inform the Coast Guard of vessels in trouble, to help communicate with such vessels and help guide them to safety — and to guide their rescuers to them.

If mariners are forced to make landfall, they want warmth and comfort and first aid, not a chain link fence around an empty, de-staffed station.

What’s at risk here is a system, the best system, and the infrastructure to support it.

Staffed lightstations are an integral part of the Coast Guard structure: it’s a four-legged beast — fleet, Marine Communications and Traffic Services, Search and Rescue, lightstations — and they need all their parts to function best. Once you tear it apart and throw it in the garbage, it’s gone forever.

The cost to replicate it in the future would be too high. The supports would be gone. And for what? A small, undetermined saving?

While I understand that Coast Guard administrators are primarily concerned with the navigational aid on lightstations, the light itself, I think they should be held to their larger mandate, their motto, of Safety First, Service Always.

Staffed lightstations help protect the marine environment, play a major role in the safety of the public on our waters, and help to ensure Canada’s sovereignty and security by establishing a strong federal presence on our coastline.

Since these are all part of the Coast Guard’s obligation to the government of Canada, to the people of Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard needs to rescind its plans to de-staff lightstations.

The writer is a Victoria resident familiar with lighthouse operational issues.