Clear Seas Centre for Responsible Marine Shipping (Clear Seas) requires consulting services for an informational study to investigate the role and impact of technology on pilotage in Canadian waters from 1972 to approximately 2038, considering both safety and efficiency of service delivery. Safety refers to shipping operations without incidents or accidents causing harm to people or the environment, and efficiency refers to a reduction in the cost or time required to deliver pilotage services without a reduction in safety. Clear Seas has identified the impact of past and future technological advances on pilotage services as issue affecting marine shipping in Canada.
The Pilotage Act was enacted in 1972, establishing four regions of compulsory pilotage in Canadian coastal waters (excluding the Arctic region) to provide enhanced navigational safety by placing a Canadian pilot – a mariner with exceptional local knowledge – on board commercial ships. The contributions that pilotage services have made to safety in the maritime industry are undisputed and highly valued. However, the maritime environment has experienced a significant amount of change in the past 50 years, with new policies and new technologies changing the way ships are operated, without significant change to how pilotage services are provided.
The most recent review of the Pilotage Act aimed to modernize the legislation to better align with the existing and future realities of the marine transportation system. The Pilotage Act Review was published in 2018 and contained recommendations that the Act be amended to establish an objective that Pilotage Authorities optimize the use of new technologies, and for all available technologies to be assessed for pilotage requirements using a risk assessment framework. Subsequent amendments to the Pilotage Act in 2019 included a statement of principles for the delivery of pilotage services, including the requirements to be efficient and cost-effective, to take into consideration evolving technologies, and to make effective use of risk management tools.
This project is to understand the role and impacts of technology on compulsory pilotage in Canadian waters. For example, the introduction of the Personal Pilotage Unit (PPU) has made it possible to carry out larger vessel transits, night transits, and require less double pilotage in certain areas. The outcomes of the scope of work entailed in this RFP are intended to provide an inventory of technology options that will contribute to potential scenarios for evaluation in a future phase of research to be scoped under a separate contract. This study seeks to answer the question: can technology be applied to marine pilotage to maintain the level of safety while increasing the efficiency of pilotage service delivery? The results of this research are expected help inform and direct the delivery of pilotage services and the use of new pilotage technologies in Canada for a safe and efficient maritime sector.
