Boating is a federal jurisdiction!
GOT IT?
FAPEL has been shouting this over the rooftops for 25 years! 

Nevertheless, the majority of associations still want to go through their municipality to put a stop to nuisances caused by boats and jetskis. If only they would learn!  No!  There’s nothing to do!  Courts or no courts, they persist in their belief that it’s the municipality that must resolve the issue.

The last association to go the wrong way is the Association for the preservation of the Baie Verte, Memphremagog Lake, in Austin. Yet, they did have a real problem.  Here is how the Court of Appeal describes the problem:    

«These two bays (Channel and Verte) constitute a natural shelter where pleasure boats can seek refuge against the wind. The popularity of these bays has been constantly increasing and, over the years, the water has become really busy with everything that this entails unfortunately in terms of noise, pollution and behavior problems.»

Ignoring FAPEL’s advice, the association went to the municipality asking them to adopt a regulation concerning harmful activities in certain bays of Memphremagog Lake. The municipality adopted regulation 97-247 which forbids anchoring a pleasure boat between June 1st and October 1st and remaining on board unless the boat is moored to a public buoy. The regulation also mentions that, from May 15 to October 15, the municipality of Austin must ensure that 12 buoys be installed for public mooring in Bay Verte and 5, in Channel Bay.  The regulation limits the number of boats that can moor from June 1st to October 1st every year. So this was the source of the protest and here is the Superior Court’s decision:  the regulation of the municipality of Austin is ultra vires and unconstitutional. That decision was confirmed by the Court of Appeal!

Why was the regulation of the municipality of Austin declared ultra vires and unconstitutional?  To answer this question, FAPEL has summarized the Courts’ position for you, using a quotation of the Supreme Court of Canada found within the decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal:    

«The municipality can only exercise the powers that are expressly delegated to it by the province (…). The province cannot delegate powers to the municipality or a competence that it cannot itself exercise under the terms of sharing of competences sanctioned by the Constitutional Law of 1867.»

So, according to the sharing of competences sanctioned by the Constitutional Law of 1867, boating is definitely a federal jurisdiction. It should be easy to understand! But as long as we keep denying this fact in Quebec, the control of boats and jetskis will continue to be a problem on our lakes!