This group found our LWRA WordPress site and sent a comment to us with the following information on their activities with an invitation for interested parties to join them.
Hello:
The purpose of this note is introduce you to, and explore your potential interest in, the Coalition for Responsible and Sustainable Navigation, a pan-Canadian organization dedicated to presenting a new federal legislative framework on boating controls, based on science, to the next federal government in 2015.
The genesis of the Coalition is the realization that the source of our inability to properly regulate motorized watercraft is the Canada Shipping Act, an Act that dates back to Confederation. This Act is essentially a safety Act and as such ill-suited for addressing environmental impacts.
Equally important, Transport Canada encourages non-regulatory solutions, in particular, voluntary codes of conduct with near 100% community adherence. This formula has given rise to non-resolvable community debates or the polarization of communities, all across Canada..
The Coalition believes the rules of water navigation should be as clear as the rules of the road, rather than subject to community-specific debates.
To achieve our legislative goal, the Coalition has brought together environmental legal expertise of the Le Centre québécois du droit de l’environnement (CQDE) with that of the Université de Québec Montreal campus (UQÀM), regarding the environmental impacts of boats. Other sources of expertise from across Canada will be sought as we move forward.
Regarding UQÀM, they recently published a study that showed that wake boats waves must travel a distance of 300 metres before they lose their force. Further research on a larger range of types of boats will be performed during the summer of 2015.
Applying the above-described expertise, the Coalition is working on a model to the effect that national/provincial environmental tolerance standards would be applied to bathymetric maps, to classify waterways and/or sections of waterways, regarding restrictions on certain types of boats. Other models and variations of models will also be explored.
Equally important in achieving our goals is that of becoming an entity too big to ignore. Individual and community participation is also essential for achieving a holistic approach that ensures the different waterways characteristics and community interests are factored into the final conclusions.
To look into the Coalition further, I invite you to look at our site, http://coalitionnavigation.ca/ Should you wish to endorse the Coalition online, you can do so via this link, http://coalitionnavigation.ca/petition
You may also be interested in having a look at 1) a video on the underwater impacts of powerful boats; 2) an article in French on the Coalition reported in the Montreal journal La Presse; and 3) the aforementioned study on wake boats (in French only, but we intend to get the summary translated). All of this material can be found in the section, Info Exchange/Articles, Reports and Videos on our site, http://coalitionnavigation.ca/informations/informations-articles-and-videos
To sum up, to succeed in establishing a new the legislative framework based on science, it is critical that we find some way to work together — In the event you would like to communicate with us or meet with a Coalition representative in this regard, just let us know.
As well, should you so wish, your organization is welcome to participate in a one day Coalition conference at the Université de Québec downtown Montreal campus in Early 2015. Confirmation of the date will soon be made.
This is all part of building a national movement, one baby step at-a-time.
To date, the Coalition has a broad base in Québec and BC. We are currently focusing our efforts on developing an Ontario base.
Sincerely,
The Coalition Team
Will Dubitsky, Daniel Piché, Chantal Crête and Dave Clark
Limerick Waterways Newsletter 