Exploring risk governance deficits of maritime Search and Rescue in Canada

Abstract

Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR) is an essential component of ensuring the safety of life at sea. Canadian SAR regions comprise vast sea areas, posing challenges to incident response. A wide range of maritime activities takes place, each having a different risk profile. The multitude of national and international regulatory commitments, rightsholder and stakeholder interests, and the need for efficient SAR response in changing climatic conditions, point to the need for effective societal risk governance. This article provides insights in shortcomings and improvement opportunities of maritime SAR risk governance in Canada, as understood by experts from responsible maritime authorities. The relevant current regulatory context and governance practices are described first, giving particular focus to the legal basis, roles and responsibilities, engagement processes with rights- and stakeholders, and the applied risk assessment tools to support decision-making. Subsequently, an exploratory research methodology based on interviews with federal civil servants and literature is performed to understand risk governance deficits, using a set of commonly found deficits identified by the International Risk Governance Council. The results indicate that the main deficits pertain to the lack of organizational capacity and dealing with dispersed responsibilities. Furthermore, deficits are identified in terms of obtaining factual knowledge of the risk, dealing with risk perceptions, understanding complex systems, and adequately involving rights- and stakeholders in risk assessment. The results serve as an initial basis to develop policy and management strategies for alleviating the identified deficits. Acknowledging the limitations of the exploratory study, several avenues for future research are outlined.