'Never seen a hovercraft before': Canadian Coast Guard opening its doors to the public Saturday

Hunter Kambietes has one more year of high school left, then he has to make a pretty important life decision.

He is one of 500 high school students who got a preview of Saturday's open house at the Victoria base of the Canadian Coast Guard Friday.

“Coming out here today, I’ve learned a lot, a lot of stuff that research didn’t tell me about the Coast Guard,” he said.

You could call the tour career prep.

“I’ve known about the Coast Guard since Grade 10 and I have definitely been considering going into it,” Kambietes said.

The Canadian Coast Guard is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, and to mark the milestone, it will be opening the doors of its Victoria base to the public Saturday.

“We are the marine entity for the government of Canada that’s civilian,” said Capt. Susan Pickrell, senior director of fleet for the Western Region of the Canadian Coast Guard.

The federal organization’s mandate is broad. It includes search and rescue, ice breaking, aiding in scientific research and environmental response.

“The Zim Kingston was a good example of that,” said Pickrell.

On Oct. 23, the MV Zim Kingston was hit by high winds off the west coast of Vancouver Island. It lost more than 100 shipping containers overboard. A day later, the ship caught fire 12 kilometres off of Dallas Road.

“Which was an environmental hazard, and so Coast Guard was involved from the beginning to the end on that incident,” said Pickrell.

Friday's preview offered students the rare opportunity to get up close and personal with many of the organization's more unique pieces of machinery.

“It’s like out of a movie, it seems made-up,” said Hudson Daly from Central Middle School. “It’s really cool.”

“I’ve never seen a hovercraft before,” said another student.

“It was a dream to get into the Coast Guard,” said first officer Gary Nolan, with Sea Island Coast Guard Station.

“I grew-up on the water.”

Nolan started out as a diver but now has a job on the hovercraft.

“We definitely have a need for people, there is no question,” said Pickrell.

Like most sectors, the Canadian Coast Guard is facing a labour shortage. People are aging out and retiring, leaving jobs unfilled, meaning Oak Bay High School students may have a chance at finding employment with the federal agency.

“He definitely has a chance,” said Pickrell of Kambietes.

“We have lots of vacancies and we’re looking for that young life to be able to carry us into the next generation.”

“I’d love to do this as a life-long job,” said Kambietes. “Being on the sea my entire life, I think that would be really awesome.”

On Saturday, the open house runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Victoria base in James Bay.