Canada’s navy is 20 per cent understaffed, and its ships are aging. What does that mean?

A Chinese Navy warship sent out a radio call to HMCS Ottawa on a mission in the South China Sea. Adrian Ghobrial reports from onboard.

CTV National News Correspondent Adrian Ghobrial has been on board HMCS Ottawa, embedded with Canadian Navy personnel documenting their work in the East and South China Sea – a region where China is increasingly flexing its maritime muscle. This is the seventh story in of a series of dispatches from the ship.

The forward engine room of HMCS Ottawa is where you’ll find two impressive turbine engines. Combined, they deliver a staggering 50-thousand horsepower.

Though that’s not where the strength of the Canadian warship can be found. It’s actually found in the dedicated crew, who are responsible for propelling the aging ship forward during a month’s long deployment through the Indo-Pacific as part of Operation Horizon.

In 2023, the Royal Canadian Navy’s Vice-Admiral noted that Canada’s understaffed and resource-stretched navy is in “a critical state” and that the navy might not be able to carry out its basic duties at home and around the world.

A team of roughly 250 navy personnel set out on HMCS Ottawa in the South China Sea. They are short staffed, and at various times watched by Chinese warships, who follow their every move.

Recruitment shortfalls

As a whole, Canada’s military, including the navy, is facing recruitment and retention shortfalls. A national defence spokesperson told CTV News “The Navy is currently just over 20 percent short of personnel – our goal is to recruit and retain as many skilled sailors as possible.”

HMCS Ottawa’s marine systems engineering department, who keep the warship floating and moving, normally deploy with a team of 60. For this operation, their team had been trimmed to 47.

Just days after leaving a port in southern Japan, with CTV National News on board, HMCS Ottawa suffered a mechanical failure. A call sounded out over the ship’s loudspeaker for its short-staffed team of marine systems engineers to report.

The issue was traced to a faulty valve that is struggling to cool the ships vital fluids. Trying to fix the problem while at sea means burning additional fuel, which lead to a days-long, unplanned visit to a port so the ship can gas up and receive some much needed time to work on the frigates systems.

Speaking from the bridge, HMCS Ottawa’s Commanding Officer Adriano Lozer tells CTV National News that “you don’t want cooling systems running hot.”

“From a self-defence perspective, maneuvering perspective, its no bueno.”

An aging fleet

While on board, CTV News also learned that one of the warship’s two diesel driven fire pumps, which power the fire hoses during a power outage, had seized.

The issues were documented while CTV National News embedded with the Royal Canadian Navy on board HMCS Ottawa as it travelled through the contested waters of the South China Sea to promote peace and rules-based maritime order. Chinese warships shadowed the Canadian frigate and its crew for multiple days.

Launched in 1996, HMCS Ottawa is the youngest of the dozen frigates the Canadian Navy has at its disposal. Yet all the country’s warships, including HMCS Ottawa, are showing their age. Finding parts to maintain the aging fleet is a constant juggling act.

Even with all its issues, the marine systems engineers who spoke to CTV News say that HMCS Ottawa is in the best condition out of any of the countries warships.

Lozer told CTV News that he has “the full confidence in the material readiness of the ship so the technical readiness of the ship to do its job.”

“From a fight perspective, there has been a large amount of investment in the mid-2010’s to update all of our combat systems,” Lozer said. “There’s been a sustained effort to keep our combat systems ready to fight today.”

Lozer adds that the “float systems,” the steel upgrades, the pipe systems and main infrastructure, is “something that needs investment.” However, he believes the ships will receive the financial support needed through a fund to sustain the fleet of warships into the 2030s.

That’s when the federal government has promised the first of its new River-Class Destroyers will be ready for launch.

Upgrades coming, concerns remain

“The River-class Destroyer (RCD) Project (formerly known as the Canadian Surface Combatant project) is the largest and most complex shipbuilding initiative in Canada since World War II,” reads a statement from Public Services and Procurement Canada.

“The Government of Canada continues to work toward full-rate production of the RCD ships in 2025, with ship delivery expected to begin in the early 2030s and to be completed by 2050.”

The Department of National Defence has announced that 15 new destroyers will be built, and while their design is well underway, a contract to build the next-generation warships has yet to be awarded. That’s left some critics skeptical of the governments promise of a new naval fleet.

“We just can’t afford them” said Alan Williams, a former assistant deputy minister of material with national defence.

“At some point, the government is going to have to come forward and say that. They’ve committed to buying 15 of these, but they don’t say that anymore. They say we’re only buying three.”

Williams says that the government has yet to hold an open and transparent competition for the contract to build the new destroyers. As a result, the price tag to deliver the ships as promised has already begun to skyrocket.

“If you distort, manipulate and abdicate all basic principles of procurement, you get what we now have, an out-of-control program,” Williams said, adding that the “price to build the ships has gone from $20 billion to $80 billion.”

Public Services and Procurement Canada says the design and construction process is several years in the making. The government is negotiating terms for construction with Irving Shipbuilding Inc.

“Contract award is anticipated to take place in early 2025,” reads the agency’s statement.

The fact remains that Canada has the most coastline in the world, flanked by the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans. For those on board HMCS Ottawa, not delivering a new complete fleet of destroyers simply isn’t an option.

As far as the Royal Canadian Navy is concerned, it’s a matter of national security.