Canadian Coast Guard College - History

History

Established in 1965 as a residential college on the site of the former navy base HMCS Protector located at Point Edward along the western shore of Sydney Harbour, CCGC's first mandate was to train young men in 4-year diplomas of Marine Engineering or Marine Navigation for the Coast Guard's Officer Training Program. The Officer Training Program expanded in 1973 to include women.

In 1981, CCGC moved from its location on the former Point Edward naval base to an adjacent custom-built 120 acre (486,000 m²) campus in neighbouring Westmount. The campus is located in a wooded area immediately south of Point Edward and adjacent to Petersfield Provincial Park. It consists of a variety of interlinked residential, training, administration, and health/fitness facilities. CCGC also has extensive simulators for depicting the navigation of vessels in a variety of scenarios, fully operational dry-land mock-ups of vessel engine rooms, and a simulator for a rescue coordination centre (RCC).

CCGC has a small fleet of training vessels ranging from sail boats and rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIB) to 40 foot (12 m) lifeboat cutters, and one state of the art 47-foot (14 m) motor life boat- all housed in a custom-built boathouse on the college's waterfront along a small cove. Operational icebreakers, buoy tenders, and search and rescue patrol vessels in the coast guard's Atlantic and Arctic fleets frequently call at Sydney Harbour to conduct cadet familiarization training.

From the 1980s to the 2000s (decade), the college expanded its training programs to include not only the 4 year Officer Training Program for the CCG, but also customized marine training for students from Commonwealth Caribbean nations, as well as other federal government agencies such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and the Department of Transport. The 4 year Officer Training Program has also been expanded to include training for students from several Middle East nations.

In the 1995, the 4 year Officer Training Program was granted degree accreditation through an agreement with the University College of Cape Breton, since renamed Cape Breton University. Following completion of the Officer Training program, graduates now receive a Bachelor of Technology (Nautical Science) from CBU.

CCGC functions as a conference facility for federal and international government-sponsored events and provides a variety of customized short term training programs for government agencies.

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