An updating service for Canadian electronic navigational charts

In October 1990 the Canadian Public Review Panel on Tanker Safety and Marine Spills Response Capability identified oil spill prevention as the highest priority for protecting the coastal and marine environment. Specifically, it recommended that the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS): expedite development of electronic charting technology and the required infrastructure, then introduce regulations requiring the use of electronic charts on all tankers in Canadian waters. Part of the "required infrastructure" includes developing and implementing an electronic updating service to ensure that all electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS) users have up-to-date electronic navigation charts (ENCs). In response to this recommendation the CHS initiated the Electronic Chart Pilot Project in partnership with private industry to build the infrastructure to create and manage ENCs, to distribute them to ships operating in Canadian waters, and to keep them up-to-date. The final phase of this six-year Green Plan program is to develop an IMO (International Maritime Organisation) compliant ENC updating infrastructure.