pCAPE VINCENT — The U.S. Coast Guard adopted new pilotage rates Wednesday for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system despite previous concerns raised by shipping interests and an 11th-hour request from the Canadian government to delay the implementation. /ppIn a letter Tuesday to the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Admiral Paul F. Zukunft, and Rear Admiral Paul F. Thomas, the Coast Guard’s assistant commandant for prevention police, Canada Transport Deputy Minister Michael Keenan echoed concerns raised by shippers about the methodology used to arrive at the 2016 pilotage rates and asked the Coast Guard to delay implementation of its final rule authorizing the rate hikes./pp“The burden of the rate increase will likely be concentrated on a limited number of sectors and stakeholders, such as Canadian grain and U.S. steel-making and manufacturing, which, in turn could further negatively impact GLSLS system traffic levels,” Mr. Keenan wrote. “As I am sure you are aware, these industries, the maritime industry and the GLSLS system are facing significant economic challenges in today’s global economy.”/ppEvery foreign-flagged commercial vessel that transits the Seaway system has to be guided by a U.S. or Canadian pilot. Under federal law, the Coast Guard annually reviews the amount shippers must provide three U.S. pilots’ associations to cover the costs of providing pilot services./ppThe Coast Guard projects that in 2016 the new rate will result in shippers paying pilot associations an additional $1.8 million, or about 12 percent more for the service, with the shippers’ cost rising from about $15.59 million in 2015 to $17.4 million in 2016. Driving the increase is the Coast Guard’s proposal to add 18 pilots on the system over the next two shipping seasons. In 2015, there were 36 registered pilots available for service, a number the Coast Guard wants to increase to 48 by the start of the 2017 shipping season and to 54 by the close of the season./ppThe Coast Guard also proposes that shippers pay a “temporary surcharge” of $1,650,000 for the cost of hiring and training new and current pilots. In all, the total cost increase in 2016 for shippers will be $3,515,025, or nearly 23 percent, over 2015 rates, according to the new rule./ppShippers have claimed that the methodology used by the Coast Guard to come up with the rates is flawed. Mr. Keenan’s letter states that stakeholders and other users of the system “have raised very specific and evidence-based concerns” with the methodology and have asked the Coast Guard to delay implementing the final rule setting 2016 rates “until such time as the range of concerns raised by the system users can be fully considered, and addressed as appropriate.” /p
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