The recreational boating season is mostly over, but Transport Canada is floating a plan to expand the number of pleasure craft that require a licence, shorten the renewal period and introduce a user fee on those licences.
The proposed rule changes would provide the government with more information to identify the owners of recreational boats abandoned or wrecked in Canada’s lakes, rivers and oceans.
Transport Canada signalled its intention to amend the small vessel regulations in a presentation prepared for a virtual meeting of the Canadian Marine Advisory Council this week.
The user fee is undefined.
Pat Nelder of Boating Atlantic said the industry in this region is on board — so far.
“We have to pay to license cars,” she said. “We have to pay to license trailers. I don’t think it’s a big issue to license boats as long as they’re … very reasonable in the amount of money they want to charge.
Right now, only pleasure craft with an engine over 9.9 horsepower need a licence — and it’s free.
Proposals introduce a user fee and make a licence mandatory for any boat above six metres, regardless of engine size.
Transport Canada intends to end lifetime non-renewable licences and reduce the licence-renewal period from 10 years to five.
Pleasure boats under 9.9 horsepower don’t need a licence under current regulations. (CBC)
The amended regulations are expected to go to the treasury board in 2021. The federal cabinet committee oversees government financial management.
The new licence requirement would capture thousands of pleasure craft, including the 7.9-metre sailboat owned by Pat Nelder, which is powered by a 2.6-horsepower engine.
“It’s currently not licensed and it would probably ask me to license that particular boat, which I have no problem doing,” she said.
“But I don’t know how putting these boats under a licensing system would be policed. I mean, I’ve never been boarded by Transport Canada.”
Transport Canada declined to discuss its plans until the Canadian Marine Advisory Council later this week.
“All details will be presented for the public and stakeholders to review and comment at that time,” the department said in a statement.
Nelder said the recreational boating industry will raise the amendments with officials later this week.
“We want to know what the fee would include. Is it a fee for service for the licensing, plus a charge towards the wrecked and abandoned boats program?”
She said the user fee is better than the alternative — a luxury tax proposed by the Liberals in 2019 on boats, planes and cars over $100,000.
Most wrecks are from overseas
In Atlantic Canada, most pleasure boats are taken out of the water for the winter.
Boat yards along the coast are brimming with boats covered in shrink wrap this time of year.
Nelder said recreational boats that are wrecked and abandoned here generally come from overseas.
“The person may have run out of money and just abandoned the boat,” she said. “And those are the boats we see. The licensing system isn’t going to change that.”
She considers it the beginning of a consultation that could take several years.
OTTAWA – Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the government is making some changes to mortgage rules to help more Canadians to purchase their first home.
She says the changes will come into force in December and better reflect the housing market.
The price cap for insured mortgages will be boosted for the first time since 2012, moving to $1.5 million from $1 million, to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
On Aug. 1 eligibility for the 30-year amortization was changed to include first-time buyers purchasing a newly-built home.
Justice Minister Arif Virani is also releasing drafts for a bill of rights for renters as well as one for homebuyers, both of which the government promised five months ago.
Virani says the government intends to work with provinces to prevent practices like renovictions, where landowners evict tenants and make minimal renovations and then seek higher rents.
The government touts today’s announced measures as the “boldest mortgage reforms in decades,” and it comes after a year of criticism over high housing costs.
The Liberals have been slumping in the polls for months, including among younger adults who say not being able to afford a house is one of their key concerns.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – The head of a federal inquiry into foreign interference says she will not be publicly identifying parliamentarians suspected by a spy watchdog of meddling in Canadian affairs.
The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians raised eyebrows earlier this year with a public version of a secret report that said some parliamentarians were “semi-witting or witting” participants in the efforts of foreign states to meddle in Canadian politics.
Although the report didn’t name individuals, the blunt findings prompted a flurry of concern that members knowingly involved in interference might still be active in politics.
As inquiry hearings resume today, commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue cautions that the allegations are based on classified information, which means the inquiry can neither make them public, nor even disclose them to the people in question.
As a result, she says, the commission of inquiry won’t be able to provide the individuals with a meaningful opportunity to defend themselves.
However, Hogue adds, the commission plans to address the allegations in the classified version of its final report and make recommendations.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – The judge overseeing the sexual assault trial of former vice-admiral Haydn Edmundson is reading his decision in an Ottawa court this morning.
Edmundson was the head of the military’s personnel in 2021 when he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman while they were deployed together back in 1991.
The trial was held in February, but the verdict has been delayed twice.
The complainant, Stephanie Viau, testified at trial that she was in the navy’s lowest rank at the time of the alleged assault and Edmundson was an officer.
Edmundson pleaded not guilty, and testified that he never had sexual contact with Viau.
He was one of several high-ranking military leaders accused of sexual misconduct in 2021, a scandal that led to an external report calling for sweeping changes to reform the culture of the Armed Forces.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
