Boats and jetskis - Page 2

Can mandatory washing of boats be used as a way of eliminating zebra mussels?

Not within the Boating Restriction Regulations. This is usually done through a municipal regulation, but these washing stations are inefficient.  It is impossible to dislodge the zebra mussels at the larvae stage unless the entire boat is submerged in chlorinated water for many hours so that all the motor’s cooling ducts can be sterilized.  It is truly an impossible task.  FAPEL is opposed to those stations and denounces the municipalities that have such regulation. In the end, these municipalities extort money from the citizens for something that does not do  what is is suppose to do.

Does the Competency of Operators of Pleasure Craft Regulations apply to small boats as well as large ones?

The Regulations apply to all motorized boats no matter what the size or type of motor.  A 2-cylinder motor boat would fall under that regulation.

Do boat operators who are 55 years old and more have to pass a test in order to be allowed to use a motor boat?

The first version of the Competency of Operators of Pleasure Craft Regulations included an exception for operators 55 years old or more and FAPEL agreed with this exception. FAPEL was surprised to see that in the final version, that exception was removed, without any further consultation.  The 55+ must now follow the same rule as all the other boat operators.

When I was going over the list of lakes where power-driven boats are banned, I was surprised not to find our lake since the ban has been in place for many years.

The list of lakes where power-driven boats (gas and electric or gas only) are banned includes only the lakes that are officially recognized as such under the Boating Restriction Regulations.  If your lake is not on the list, it is either because it falls under an illegal municipal regulation or because it is a Mickey Mouse agreement among cottagers, which has no legal value.   

• When will cottagers understand what FAPEL has been saying for 25 years?  Boating is a federal jurisdiction and the  municipalities are not authorized to set regulations banning motor boats.  As far as the agreement among cottagers goes, it is an illusion because, when the cottage is sold, the new owner will have the legal right to use a motor boat on the lake if he wants to.   

Your question is evident proof of the confusion that reigns on the subject of boating restrictions in Québec, a confusion that unfortunatly some cottagers seem intent on feeding. We will try to clarify the situation.

Following a Court decision confirming federal jurisdiction on boating and navigation, Transports Canada adopted the Boating Restrictions Regulation. This is the regulation that can be implemented in Québec, since. But recently, the PQ government decided to adopt a Mickey Mouse Law on boating restrictions to try get a handle on a jurisdiction that is known to be federal and recongnized as such by the courts. Some cottagers even give this Mickey Mouse Law an importance it does not have, by insisting that it constitutes an official transfer of jurisdiction, as if the federal government had intentionally transfered all its jurisdiction on boating to the Québec government, before said government adopted its Mickey Mouse Law. This is totally untrue! There was never any transfer of jurisdiction on boating to the provincial level, and the federal government is still sole responsable for boating on lakes and streams, in Canada and Québec. As for restrictions to boating already adopted under the federal Boating Restrictions Regulation, they remain valid and in force, in spite of the new provincial Mickey Mouse Law.

There is also much confusion on the subject of public consultations. Before the provincial government's intrusion where it had no business being involved, the administrative procedure linked to the Boating Restrictions Regulation requested a public consultation to be held by the municipalities before the requested restrictions were to be integrated in the federal regulation. Public consultations are therefore not a «new» provision, but were always part of the federal regulation. On the contrary, in fact : the provincial Mickey Mouse Law is totally silent on the subject! In fact, in the provincial Mickey Mouse Law, the municipalities can decide on their own, without having to consider the opinion of their citizens!

It is therefore a grave mistake to imply, has does the above question submitted to FAPEL, that thanks to the provincial Mickey Mouse Law, consultations must now be organized by the municipalities. That is not the case, by far! To obtain a public consultation one can only do so through the federal Boating Restrictions Regulation. Besides, isn't it typical of the Québec provincial government to brush the citizens aside when making decisions that concern them directly?

That is why FAPEL  strongly recommends that lake associations ignore the provincial Mickey Mouse Law and go directly to the federal Boating Restrictions Regulation to get the proper boating restrictions for their lakes.

"Is there a way to determine how many boats can be tolerated on our lake without adverse impact!"

One can always get somebody to utter one rule or another! There are lots of so called experts who will accept to multiply, divide, add, substract and extract the square root, and, voilà, give you whatever result you are hoping for. Tada!  Your lake cannot accept more than 20 motorboats. To FAPEL, all these studies smack of witchcraft and only serve to sidetrack cottagers into endless and sterile discussions.

 Think about it! What use will it be to know that 20 or so motorboats are the maximum your lake can tolerate, when there is no way this type of information can be integrated to a regulation in the actual legal context. It is wishfull thinking, and only that, as long as there is no regulation to implement a limit on the number of boats on a lake! Forget about this type of approach! If you really want to get somewhere on the subject of controling motorboating on your lake, the only tool you have, now, is the federal Boating Restriction Regulations.

Yes, but not much. The ageing process of a lake is mainly due to deforestation and soil stripping, practices that lead to warming up of the waters and their overfertilization. Waves from too many motorboats or jetskis can certainly participate in undermining the banks and destroying the shoreland vegetation. The shore then becomes the site of greater erosion. And, with erosion, come increased levels of nutritive elements and, eutrophication. In that sense, the presence of motorboats and jetskis on a lake can contribute to its ageing process. If such is the situation on your lake, there is only one solution: protect and restore the natural vegetation on the whole of its shoreland belt, and limit the speed of boats to 10 km/hour in a  30, 50 or 75 meter belt (or even more) along the shores of the lake, using the federal Boating Restrictions Regulation, not the Mickey Mouse Law (#106) adopted by the government of Québec.

"Our association has been fighting to get a municipal regulation on motorboating adopted, since 1995.  It seems that I have to write the by-law myself. Does FAPEL has a model regulation that I could use?"

You are so on the wrong track! For years and years now, FAPEL has been going hoarse repeating that municipalities do not have the jurisdiction to adopt a by-law on boating. It is a federal juridiction under the Canada Shipping Act. FAPEL strongly recommends you drop your project and concentrate on getting your lake listed in the only existing and valid regulation on the subject, the federal Boating Restriction Regulations. Requesting action on the level of the municipality is keeping you in a dead end! You say you have been fighting to get a municipal regulation since 1995. This is 2004; you have already waster nine years! Stop going around in circle.