CCG Research Division

Lore & Background

The CCG's mandate is to protect the public from ghouls, who are predatory beings that feed on human flesh. The agency operates under the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, reflecting the classification of ghoulism as a public health crisis. CCG investigators are trained at the CCG Academy, where they learn combat techniques, forensic analysis, and the use of quinques—weapons forged from ghoul kagune. The CCG also conducts research into ghoul biology, including the development of artificial kagune and potential treatments for ghoulism. Unlike real-world coast guards, the CCG has no maritime responsibilities; its focus is entirely on urban counter-ghoul operations.

Reader's Guide

A period of expansion followed the creation of the CCG between the 1960s and the 1980s. The outdated ships the CCG inherited from the Marine Service were scheduled for replacement, along with dozens of new ships for the expanding role of the organization. Built under a complementary national shipbuilding policy which saw the CCG contracts go to Canadian shipyards, the new ships were delivered throughout this golden age of the organization. In addition to expanded geographic responsibilities in the Great Lakes, the rise in coastal and ocean shipping ranged from new mining shipments such as Labrador iron ore, to increased cargo handling at the nation's major ports, and Arctic development and sovereignty patrols—all requiring additional ships and aircraft.

The federal government also began to develop a series of CCG bases near major ports and shipping routes throughout southern Canada, for example Victoria, British Columbia, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and Parry Sound, Ontario. The expansion of the CCG fleet required new navigation and engineering officers, as well as crewmembers. To meet the former requirement, in 1965 the Canadian Coast Guard College (CCGC) opened on the former navy base HMCS Protector at Point Edward, Nova Scotia.

By the late 1970s, the college had outgrown the temporary navy facilities and a new campus was opened in the adjacent community of Westmount in 1981. During the mid-1980s, the long-standing disagreement between the U.S. and Canada over the legal status of the Northwest Passage came to a head after USCGC Polar Sea transited the passage in what were asserted by Canada to be Canadian waters and by the U.S. to be international waters. During the period of increased nationalism that followed this event, the Conservative administration of Brian Mulroney announced plans to build several enormous icebreakers, the Polar 8 class which would be used primarily for sovereignty patrols.

However, the proposed Polar 8 class was abandoned during the late 1980s as part of general government budget cuts; in their place, a program of vessel modernizations was instituted. Additional budget cuts to CCG in the mid-1990s following a change in government saw many of CCG's older vessels built during the 1960s and 1970s retired. From its formation in 1962 until 1995, CCG was the responsibility of the Department of Transport. Both the department and CCG shared complementary responsibilities related to marine safety, whereby DOT had responsibility for implementing transportation policy, regulations and safety inspections, and CCG was operationally responsible for navigation safety and SAR, among others.

Following the 1995 Canadian federal budget, the federal government announced that it was transferring responsibility for the CCG from the Department of Transport to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). The reason for placing CCG under DFO was ostensibly to achieve cost savings by amalgamating the two largest civilian vessel fleets within the federal government under a single department. Arising out of this arrangement, the CCG became ultimately responsible for crewing, operating, and maintaining a larger fleet—both the original CCG fleet before 1995 of dedicated SAR vessels, Navaid tenders, and multi-purpose icebreakers along with DFO's smaller fleet of scientific research and fisheries enforcement vessels, all without any increase in budget—in fact the overall budget for CCG was decreased after absorbing the DFO patrol and scientific vessels.

There were serious stumbling blocks arising out of this reorganization, namely in the different management practices and differences in organizational culture at DFO, versus DOT. DFO is dedicated to conservation and protection of fish through enforcement whereas the CCG's primary focus is marine safety and SAR. There were valid concerns raised within CCG about reluctance on the part of the marine community to ask for assistance from CCG vessels since the CCG was being viewed as aligned with an enforcement department.

In the early 2000s, the federal government began to investigate the possibility of remaking CCG as a separate agency, thereby not falling under a specific functional department and allowing more operational independence. In one of several reorganizations of federal departments and agencies following the swearing-in of Prime Minister Paul Martin's cabinet on December 12, 2003, several policy and regulatory responsibilities (including boating safety and navigable waters protection) were transferred from the CCG back to the Department of Transport to provide a single point of contact for issues related to marine safety regulation and security.

However, the CCG maintained operational responsibility for some of these tasks. The services offered by the CCG under this arrangement included: Icebreaking and Arctic sovereignty protection; Marine search and rescue: primary marine SAR vessels, personnel to staff joint rescue coordination centres (JRCCs) trained and designated as maritime SAR co-ordinators per the Canada Shipping Act; Marine security: monitor vessel movements within Canadian waters, coordinate information to other government departments and agencies regarding 96-hour.

Did You Know?

• The CCG was established in the early 20th century, with its founding dating back to the 1920s.
• Special Class Investigators like Kishou Arima are legendary for their combat prowess.