On the occasion of the adoption of Law 106,
this Michey Mouse legislation adopted by the government
of Québec in order to modify the Municipal
Code or the Cities and Towns Act to
give municipalities the power to regulate motorboating
and to impose a speed limit in a corridor up to 50 meters
wide or less, along the shoreline of lakes, FAPEL
immediately cautionned against this law that would not
only promote confusion in the mind of interested
cottagers, but would also risk being challenged
rapidly, ending with all the restrictions adopted
under said dispositions being eventually declared
unconstitutional.
FAPEL's position is simple: do
not stray from the prescriptions of the federal Boating
Restriction Regulations as you risk
ending up with nothing to show for long years of efforts
and end up with a regulation that would be automaticaly
abrogated. You will have to start the whole process from
scratch, by going through the Boating
Restriction Regulations. Not a piece of cake!
And this is exactly what is happening!
This time, it is against
Saint-Sauveur (Des Becs-Scies lake), in the Laurentians,
that a citizen requests a motion for a declaratory
judgment from the Superior Court. The citizen in question
submits that the new dispositions giving the
municipalities the power to impose speed limits to
motorboats are nulled and ultra vires
from the jurisdiction of the Quebec National Assembly,
since said dispositions propose to legislate on
navigation, a field that is under the exclusive
jurisdiction and competence of the Canadian Parliament.
In is request, the petitioner doesn't fail to recall
that, in the Saint-Denis-de-Brompton (lake Montjoie)
affair, the Québec Court of Appeal had estabished
jurisprudence when declaring, unanimously, that the
municipal powers to prohibite or regulate motorboating
was truly unconstitutional because it was given by the
provincial autorities, who did not have
that responsibility to start with therefore to impart.
FAPEL finds that the situation
that Saint-Sauveur now faces, is just a new testimony to
the fact that we are stil running around in circles, in
Québec! FAPEL has always supported the federal Boating
Restriction Regulations. Why? For three
reasons:
Because the Quebec
Government has never proven that it was willing
to place the quality of the environment and the
citizens' peace and quiet above the demands of
the crackling industry, whether it be the case of
snowmobiles, off-road vehicles or jetskies. This
new incursion in the field of motorboating
restrictions looks more as an attempt to start a
new federal-provincial skirmish, since the Boating
Restriction Regulations already
includes restrictions pertaining to limit speeds.
Because the powers
given the municipalities under Law 106
only concern one specific disposition: limiting
the speed of boats within a 50 meters wide belt
or less from the shoreline of a lake or river. No
other restriction! Yet, with the
Boating Restriction Regulations, cottagers
have all sorts of options to help stop abuses and
get more security measures on their lake.
Furthermore, under said regulation it is even
possible for cottagers to choose the width of the
protection belt inside which the speed of
motorboats is regulated. They are free to request
a corridor larger than 50 meters: 60 meters, for
example, or 75 meters or 100 meters and even
more!
Because FAPEL believes
that, to be really effective, the motorboating
regulation must be under one authority. Since the
adoption of Law 106, it is
possible, on one single lake, to find
restrictions edicted under the federal Boating
Restrictions Regulation or under the
Provincial Municipal Code or
the Cities and Towns Act.
Two juridictions! Two different levels of
authority! Guaranteed muddle and confusion!
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