Canada Post Mail Publications Agreement Number: 40609661 Magazine The official magazine of the Canadian Association of Diving Contractors CADC Summer 2025 Capturing the Reality of Commercial Diving on the Silver Screen How We Can Overcome the Shortage of Occupational Divers The Challenge of Telling Our Underwater Story5 contents ON THE COVER: CADC promotes professionalism, safety, and standards to build a culture of compliance. But that culture must be lived out on every jobsite, each and every day. Photo courtesy of Canada Pump & Power. UP FRONT 7 A Message from the President of the CADC 9 Notes from the Executive Director of the CADC 10 Why You Should Be a Part of the CADC 11 Become a CADC Member ON THE COVER 15 No More Excuses: Criminal Accountability in Commercial Diving FEATURE STORIES 19 Capturing the Reality of Commercial Diving on the Silver Screen 23 How We Can Overcome the Shortage of Occupational Divers? 25 The Challenge of Telling Our Underwater Story 27 Choosing a Diving Company CADC MEMBER PROJECT SPOTLIGHT 29 ODS Marine Construction: Anchored in Excellence IMAGES OF INNOVATION 32 Our Members at Work NEWS 35 CSA Standard Z275.2: Occupational Safety Code for Diving Operations 37 When Is It a Commercial Dive? 39 CADC Membership Listings 42 Index to Advertisers CADC Magazine Published for: The Canadian Association of Diving Contractors 33 – 5490 Glen Erin Drive Mississauga, Ontario L5M 5R4 Doug Elsey, P.Eng., Executive Director Phone: (905) 542-7410 delsey@cadc.ca www.cadc.ca Printed by: Matrix Group Publishing Inc. 309 Youville Street, Winnipeg, MB R2H 2S9 Toll-free: (866) 999-1299 Toll-free fax: (866) 244-2544 sales@matrixgroupinc.net www.matrixgroupinc.net Canada Post Mail Publications Agreement Number: 40609661 President & CEO Jack Andress Operations Manager Shoshana Weinberg sweinberg@matrixgroupinc.net Senior Publisher Jessica Potter jpotter@matrixgroupinc.net Publishers Julie Welsh, Christine Scarisbrick Editor-in-Chief Shannon Savory ssavory@matrixgroupinc.net Editor / Social Media Manager Jenna Collignon / Paul Adair Finance / Administration Lloyd Weinberg, Nathan Redekop accounting@matrixgroupinc.net Director of Circulation & Distribution Lloyd Weinberg distribution@matrixgroupinc.net Sales Manager Jeff Cash Sales Team Leader Colleen Bell Matrix Group Publishing Inc. Account Executives Colleen Bell, Jackie Casburn, Chandler Cousins, Rich Cowan, Rob Gibson, Jim Hamilton, Frank Kenyeres, Sandra Kirby, Andrew Lee, Brian MacIntyre, Chad Morris, Lynn Murphy, Wilma Gray-Rose, Monique Simons Advertising Design James Robinson Layout & Design Kayti McDonald ©2025 Matrix Group Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of the publisher. The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of Matrix Group Publishing Inc. Printed in Canada.7 up front Ryan Anderson, CADC President Our new Tiered Membership System is built to reflect capability – not just cashflow. Whether you’re doing dam inspections with a single four-person crew or installing pipelines with a staff of 40, your tier will now reflect what you actually do out there in the water. And that’s what matters – contractors need to know what you are capable of. A Message from the President of the CADC Non-members, you can be added to the mailing list by going to www.cadc.ca/cadcmag. Update Your Mailing Details! CADC members, you can update your mailing details to receive upcoming issues of CADC Magazine by emailing distribution@matrixgroupinc.net. Canada Post Mail Publications Agreement Number: 40609661 Magazine The offi cial magazine of the Canadian Association of Diving Contractors CADC Winter 2024-2025 Rolling in the DEEP: The ‘NASA of the Sea’ Takes Saturation Diving into the 21st Century The Value of Competency- Based Certification An Emerging Diving Contractor: Canadian Underwater Inspection Services Canada Post Mail Publications Agreement Number: 40609661 Maga zine The of fi cial m agazine of the Canadian Association of Di ving Co nt ra ctor s CADC Su mm er 20 24 Where It All Began ROVs: A Diver’s Best Friend Who’s Responsible When Things Go Wrong? Note: we do not mail outside of Canada and we may limit the number of free sign-ups for non-CADC members. We’ve come a long way since the early days of the Canadian Association of Diving Contractors (CADC). Back when we started out, the association was a small community of divers and contractors who shared a handshake and a belief in doing things right and our two membership categories – Contractor and Major Contractor – fit the bill. It was simple and it worked... right up to the point that it didn’t. Today’s Canadian commercial diving industry is a different beast than it was back in 1982. We have small operators running tight, efficient outfits doing high-skill work in shallow water, and we’ve got national contractors managing multi-million-dollar infrastructure projects with fleets of trucks and full-time crews. The old two-tier system simply didn’t reflect that diversity. It flattened us out and made us all look the same when we clearly aren’t the same. So – like our industry – we have evolved and changed the way we are doing things. Our new Tiered Membership System is built to reflect capability – not just cashflow. Whether you’re doing dam inspections with a single four-person crew or installing pipelines with a staff of 40, your tier will now reflect what you actually do out there in the water. And that’s what matters – contractors need to know what you are capable of. So, we made it easy. But we didn’t build this system in a vacuum, and we took a page from the Association of Diving Contractors International (ADCI) model – because it’s a system that works. Small companies pay less; big companies pay more, and it’s still incredibly reasonable: dues across all tiers are under 0.05 per cent of your declared annual revenues. For most of us, that’s less than the cost of a plane flight across Canada – or definitely a night at the bar after a long project. But the real value isn’t in the price. It’s in the purpose. Here’s what this structure gives us: • A true reflection of capability: Your membership tier tells the world what level you operate at. It’s recognition, plain and simple. • A system that helps everyone: Larger companies carry a bit more weight. That support helps smaller and emerging contractors grow. That’s how we strengthen the industry – not just the individual. • A more sustainable and forward-looking CADC: With this model, we can continue to push safety, promote the CSA dive standards, and represent your voice where it counts – at regulatory tables, in boardrooms, and in the field. And let’s be clear – CSA Z275.2 and Z275.4 compliance remains the floor for contractor membership. That’s our shared baseline. No compromise there. This isn’t just a bookkeeping change. It’s a signal to the industry that CADC is serious about representing reality. About showing who our members are – not just what they pay. Thank you for standing with us. Thank you for helping to build something better. Let’s keep moving forward. A System That Reflects Who We Are9 up front Doug Elsey, P.Eng. CADC Executive Director PHOTO CREDIT: DougElsey.com Notes from the Executive Director of the CADC safely, smartly, and with pride. Their barge systems, dive crews, and project scope show the kind of technical capability Canadian contractors bring to the table, as well as the culture of mentorship that keeps divers in the industry for the long haul. Jonathan Chapple then offers us a look ahead at the upcoming next edition of Canada’s diving safety code. And it’s not just a refresh: with new sections on risk assessment, diving in currents, human factors, and the long-overdue formal definition of an underwater construction site, the CSA Standard Z275.2 standard is evolving to meet modern challenges. These aren’t theoretical changes – they’re the backbone of how we operate safely and legally. We also take a moment to honour one of our own, Glen Costello, and pay tribute to a man who led with integrity, fought for safer diving practices, and left a legacy that shaped both the Canadian Association of Diving Contractors (CADC) and Canada’s commercial diving standards. Costello’s Lifetime Achievement Award is richly deserved, and a reminder that leadership isn’t always loud. Sometimes it just has to be steady, persistent, and unshakable. Looking ahead So where does that leave us? Right here, in a moment of reckoning – and the opportunity to raise the bar, to train better, to supervise better, and to demand more from us and the people who hire us. To do our job safely, we need to make it safer. Because the next time a diver’s life is in your hands, there won’t be time to Google a dive standard or regulation. You’ll either know what to do – or you won’t. The difference isn’t just professional; it’s personal, it’s legal, and it can mean the difference between life and death. As an association, CADC will keep promoting professionalism and safety. But this isn’t about policy. It’s about education. It’s about people. People like Glen. People like your divers. People like you. Have a successful and safe summer, one where everyone comes home at the end of the dive! If there’s one throughline in this issue of CADC Magazine, it’s this: excuses in our industry are not tolerated. This theme is reflected in every article you’ll read here. From criminal court rulings to offshore emergencies, from diver shortages to legacy preservation – this issue is a wake-up call. In the pages of CADC Magazine In our cover feature, ‘No More Excuses: Criminal Accountability in Commercial Diving Starts Now,’ we break down a recent ruling where a site supervisor’s negligence resulted in a young worker’s death – and a three-year prison sentence. This wasn’t an offshore dive gone wrong but make no mistake – regardless of sector – if you’re in a position of responsibility and fail to follow safety standards, the consequences can be criminal, and you can end up in jail. In ‘Capturing the Reality of Commercial Diving on the Silver Screen,’ Dennis Barrington peels back the curtain on a major saturation diving film to reveal a sobering reality: emergencies offshore don’t wait for permission. When the lights go out and a diver’s lifeline is severed, it’s the training and decision-making of the people on site that saves lives. We shift gears with a feature from Diving Certification Board of Canada CEO, Tracy Childs, who brings us the sombre numbers we can’t ignore – that almost half of our newly certified divers leave the industry within two years. Her article stresses how we need to rethink how to support divers through their early careers, how to make their work sustainable, and how we help qualified people return to the industry when they’re ready. In “The Challenge of Telling Our Underwater Story”, Author Vickie Jensen captures the heart of British Columbia’s subsea legacy. From HYCO’s Pisces submersibles to Phil Nuytten’s Deep Rover, Canada’s westernmost province punched well above its weight in global undersea innovation. We need to invest in preserving that story before it slips below the surface. In our Member Spotlight, we meet ODS Marine, an Ottawa-based company that exemplifies what it means to operate Costello’s Lifetime Achievement Award is richly deserved, and a reminder that leadership isn’t always loud. Sometimes it just has to be steady, persistent, and unshakable.Next >