Transport Committee on Oct. 31st, 2024

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Philip Lawrence]

I've always wanted to do this, so here we go.

Welcome to the transportation committee.

I will start by reading some of the basic introduction en français.

I apologize for the poor quality of my French.

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 135 of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities.

Before we go on, I'd like to remind all of those participating in person to read the instructions on the cards on the table in front of them. These measures are in place to protect the health and safety of all participants.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Monday, September 18, 2023, the committee is resuming its study of regulation of recreational boating on Canada's waterways.

All witnesses have completed the required connection tests.

I'd now like to welcome the witnesses.

Today, from Coalition Navigation, we have Denise Cloutier and André Philippe Hébert.

From Fédération québécoise de défense des lacs et cours d’eau, we have Constance Ramacieri and Claude Sicard.

We also have Raynald Collard from the Association des riverains et amis du Richelieu.

Is that right, Madam Clerk?

Madam Clerk is helping me out. It's my first time here.

Make sure you keep your earpieces away from the microphones, as that can cause feedback, which can cause significant damage to our interpreters.

We will begin with one person speaking for each group for five minutes. I will stop you once you get to about five minutes and 15 seconds, so we can make sure we have the entire time.

I'd like to thank all of the witnesses for appearing today.

I thank as well our interpreters, analysts and clerk. We have the best of the best here at the House of Commons.

We will start with Coalition Navigation for five minutes, please.

[Denise Cloutier, Vice-President, Coalition Navigation]

Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to appear before your committee.

My name is Denise Cloutier and I'm vice-president of Coalition Navigation. I'm here today with André Philippe Hébert, director.

The Coalition for Responsible and Sustainable Navigation, which we will call Coalition Navigation, is a pan-Canadian non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure that legislation on the use of motorboats protects Canada's water ecosystems and waterways.

Since 2013, the organization has developed and submitted legislative proposals to the federal government based on scientific facts in order to regulate the use of motorized boats on Canada's waters.

Our objective is to ensure that legislation is based on science and on the best scientific knowledge to protect our bodies of water and ensure their quality. We're also involved in funding research that will deepen our understanding of these issues.

We know now that navigation has an impact on bodies of water, including a major impact on drinking water intakes. As everyone knows, many bodies of water serve as drinking water intakes.

We also know that navigation has an impact on fauna and flora, including by contributing to the proliferation of invasive alien species, to the deterioration of water quality and to lake eutrophication. And as we know, eutrophication can lead to the development of cyanobacteria with toxic potential.

Moreover, navigation contributes to the breakdown not only of natural infrastructure, such as riparian strips, but also of anthropogenic infrastructure, like docks and dams.

It also has an impact on the physical and mental health of local residents and on user security.

In addition, navigation contributes to the production of greenhouse gases not only by combustion-powered navigation, but also by the eutrophication of lakes.

Everything we do is based on two scientific studies produced in Quebec. According to these studies, a wake boat with its ballasts engaged stirs up bottom sediments up to seven metres deep, which contributes to the eutrophication of the lakes. In addition, a wake boat operating within 300 metres of shore will erode that shore, since it takes at least 300 metres for the energy produced to completely dissipate. As such, this type of craft should navigate more than 300 metres from shore, and even beyond a 600-metre corridor from shore, ideally.

Navigation Coalition wants to protect water bodies and ensure that navigation is based on the bathymetry of the lakes. Bathymetry allows us to know the depth and width of waterways. We cross-reference this information with scientific studies to improve navigation practices.

We want a safe and sustainable navigation code. More specifically, we'd like to replace the current “Safe Boating Guide” with a mandatory code, similar to the traffic code, which would include a preamble emphasizing the impact of navigation on the environment. Currently, the “Safe Boating Guide” doesn't include any environmental concepts.

We also want navigators to be aware of the impact navigation has on the environment. While it is very easy to obtain a pleasure craft operator card online, the mandatory prerequisite training doesn't contain any information on the impact of navigation on the environment. We want boat card requirements to be revised, driving tests to be mandatory just as they are under the traffic code, and modules covering all the information related to sustainable and safe navigation integrated into navigation courses.

Navigation Coalition has developed a range of services to support municipalities in the complicated process of amending regulations in order to obtain navigation restrictions. We want to work with municipalities, while respecting the rules set out in the vessel operation restriction regulations. In fact, that work has already begun.

We also want to navigate towards a sustainable future. I don't know if you have our presentation in hand, ladies and gentlemen, but one of the pages shows an advertisement by boat manufacturers, where you can see a lake, a boat, and the words “unlimited playground”. That isn't true, however, since lakes are not unlimited playgrounds. We want to counter these ads with an awareness campaign.

We've already built our campaign. It includes six messages, which I will now show you.

First, we talk about navigating while preserving the ecosystem. This is for people who make waves. I don't know if you can see this ad in the presentation, but it's very appealing. People can relate to it. It is designed to encourage people to pay attention to the environment.

Then we talk about navigating while keeping waters clear—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Philip Lawrence]

Could you please wrap up in 10 seconds?

[Denise Cloutier]

Okay, I'll quickly sum up our recommendations.

First, the act should recognize the environmental impacts of pleasure craft on our bodies of water.

Then, we should define modern legislation on recreational boating that takes into account current environmental studies.

In addition, we should define recreational boating zones based on the bathymetry of water bodies.

We also need to establish and enforce a mandatory safe and sustainable navigation code and adapt the requirements of navigation courses to this code and introduce the notions of sustainable navigation from the start.

Finally, we naturally need to lead an awareness campaign across Quebec.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Philip Lawrence]

Thank you very much.

Next is Fédération québécoise de défense des lacs et cours d’eau.

[Constance Ramacieri, President, Fédération québécoise de défense des lacs et cours d’eau]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the committee for having us.

My name is Constance Ramacieri and I'm president of the Fédération québécoise de défense des lacs et cours d'eau. I'm here with Claude Sicard, administrator.

Incorporated in 2022, the federation is relatively young, but it already has nearly 150 members from 11 of Quebec's administrative regions. Its mission is to give a voice to associations and municipalities that are interested in navigation and the protection of water bodies in general.

It was at the insistence of our members that we participated in the last online consultation on the vessel operation restriction regulations, commonly referred to as VORR, and submitted three opinions, which were co-signed by 35 lake protection associations.

We would like to take this opportunity to share with you three observations that are at the heart of our thinking and our commitment to recreational boating.

The first observation is that we must avoid a democratic deficit. I think that this is an important and central issue for any democracy. I have to say that, when we talk about the democratic deficit, we're talking about what it means for small municipalities in Quebec not to have access to federal navigation regulations. I also have to say that when I'm not the president of the federation, I'm a municipal councillor. I'm sure you'll understand that this issue is of great interest to small municipalities in Quebec.

The September 2024 Canada Gazette reported that, on average, Transport Canada receives three applications each year under the vessel operation restriction regulations. At that time, there were 1,104 municipalities in Quebec, 700 of which have fewer than 2,000 residents. There are more than 500,000 lakes in Quebec. Three applications a year will take a long time. We would never suggest that Quebec municipalities want to regulate navigation, but our young federation receives far more than three applications a year.

According to Transport Canada's 2023 impact analysis, it is estimated that local governments would need 2,380 hours to complete a single application under the regulation, at an estimated cost of $100,000. You will understand that the vast majority of small municipalities in Quebec and Canada don't have the kind of resources it takes to make an application to the federal government. Naturally, this discourages local elected officials from availing themselves of the lake protection measures offered by these regulations.

The fact that it is next to impossible for most of Quebec's municipalities to avail themselves of a federal regulation constitutes a significant democratic deficit.

We believe it is Transport Canada's responsibility to ensure that local authorities can access the benefits of federal regulations without delay, undue hardship, or restrictive costs.

That is the first observation.

Our second observation is that threats to the environment must be recognized as the main driver of a restriction. The modernization of the vessel operation restriction regulations must be undertaken from the perspective of environmental protection. While security and peace of mind issues remain important, environmental threats and their consequences are increasingly serious. For example, several bodies of water, particularly where human activities are more intense, show signs of accelerated eutrophication, that is, accelerated aging.

Although the degradation is multifactorial, there are numerous scientific studies linking some boating activities to the significant effects observed on water quality. We talked about it, and we will continue to talk about it. We could send you the 2017 study on Lac Noir. It clearly demonstrates the link between navigation and water quality. This study is co-signed by Rosa Galvez, who in her spare time is a senator in the Parliament of Canada.

The federation believes that the updated vessel operation restriction regulations should incorporate the recognition of environmental threats as the primary driver of a restriction and that, consequently, it must be accompanied by a review of the allocation standards in order to prioritize responses to an environmental emergency. You're as familiar as we are with environmental emergencies, whether it be the risk of introducing aquatic invasive species, the frequency of cyanobacteria outbreaks or the protection of threatened or vulnerable species.

The third observation is that responsible government leadership is needed. We wanted to talk about the Vermont example, but it came up on Tuesday. So we decided to talk to you about the economic impact. This was also discussed on Tuesday, but we would like to share with you some economic impacts that are less recognized—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Philip Lawrence]

My apologies, but could you just wrap up? We're out of time, with just 10 seconds are left.

[Constance Ramacieri]

I will go very quickly.

I'm talking about the economic impact on riparian property values. For example, if there are cyanobacteria in a lake, riparian properties could lose 52% of their value. You can imagine what that means for a municipal government and its tax base.

Given that the era of freight transportation—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Philip Lawrence]

My apologies, you will have more time in questions.

[Constance Ramacieri]

Thank you. I'll take advantage of it.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Philip Lawrence]

Thank you for your testimony.

[Constance Ramacieri]

Thank you very much.

Five minutes go by fast.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Philip Lawrence]

They do.

Let's go to the Association des riverains et amis du Richelieu.

Mr. Collard, you have five minutes, please.

[Raynald Collard, Public Relations, Media and Press Officer, Association des riverains et amis du Richelieu]

Hello.

I belong to an association that was created at the request of my federal member of Parliament, who noticed that there was a conflict between waterfront residents and recreational boaters, particularly where motorized vessels are concerned. A dozen of us met and we painted a picture of the situation.

Shoreline erosion is obviously a problem. The Richelieu River breaks up in the spring, but there is also a continuous break-up for six to eight months because of the waves caused by the boats. We need to understand that, over the past 20 years or so, we have seen an increase in the number of marinas and, consequently, the number of boats. In addition, the boats are larger and their engine displacement has increased, so they produce bigger waves, which accelerates shoreline destruction. So we've looked into that.

We also noticed that in the villages, many people with wharves and small boats were impacted by these excessive waves. We allowed them to have their say.

As you know, the Richelieu River is a rather extraordinary waterway. I think it is the most popular river in Quebec, if not in Canada. It is nearly 130 kilometres long. Along that river there are about 20 marinas and 800 to 1,000 private wharves. I counted them on Google Earth. This doesn't include the passage of ships from the St. Lawrence River that pass through this waterway to the Hudson River. This is not insignificant. These ships are often, of course, sailboats that sail to the Bahamas and the Caribbean.

At the same time, there has also been an extraordinary increase in water recreation over the past 20 years. These are often motorized activities such as water-skiing, inflatable boat buoys, personal watercraft, and the wakeboarding we've heard so much about. The latter activity is really terrible. How is it that this water sport can happen in a small river 200 metres wide? It should be practised in the Lachine Rapids or the Gulf of St. Lawrence, for example.

In short, when we looked at the situation, we realized that there were no regulations in place to stem this new flow of water-based recreational activities. That is why we looked into the issue.

This included mitigating wave impacts on shorelines and private and public facilities, such as docks and boat-launching ramps.

We also had to look at the situation of animal species endemic to the Richelieu. The copper redhorse is a well-known example. It breeds in the Richelieu, then leaves, and returns in the spring. Without the Richelieu, that fish would disappear completely.

We talked earlier about drinking water. Just in the Lower Richelieu, where I live, 24,000 people use that water. That is 12.6 million litres a day. There are 100,000 consumers along the length of the river. So we have a major responsibility in this regard.

The Richelieu has long had problems because of the former CIL plant, Canadian Industries Limited, and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. Recently, someone asked me if we could pump out the bottom of the Richelieu and remove all this polluted mud. I told him that it would be an impossible mission. The cost would be astronomical.

So what can be done to alleviate the problem? It's not complicated. Because it's in the mud at the bottom of the river, it's important to stop playing in that mud. So we're asking boaters to go through the main channel. Earlier, someone provided figures on that. I think it was said that boats were stirring up the sediment to a depth of seven metres.

The regulatory amendment that we were able to get passed in December 2023 deals with the speed of boats based on banks and shoals—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Philip Lawrence]

Mr. Collard, if you could just wrap up in 10 seconds or less, that would be great.

[Raynald Collard]

I'll just say that we're very pleased to have had this measure adopted at the federal level. It took seven years to set up this project, and it was accepted. Now it has to be implemented. It may take a little bit of on-water monitoring to make it work.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Philip Lawrence]

Thank you, Mr. Collard.

I believe we are starting with the Conservatives for a six-minute round.

Dr. Lewis, I believe you're up.

Sorry, my apologies. It's Mr. Muys.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Thank you. Welcome.

I will ask each of the witnesses if they have any data on what the boat traffic has been in their particular area.

I know each of you represents a different portion. There's the federation of Quebec, but there's also the Richelieu, which of course is in one corner of the province, and for the coalition, I'm not sure about the geography. Is there any data on the boat traffic, say, five years ago, prepandemic, postpandemic and then this past year? Has there been an increase or a decrease? What does that look like?

[Constance Ramacieri]

I can try to answer the question.

We are next to Lake Memphremagog. Memphremagog Conservation Inc., or MCI, whose representative appeared before this committee on Tuesday, did a survey of boats on Lake Memphremagog before, during and after the pandemic. There's no doubt that there was a considerable increase during the pandemic, but it is levelling off now. I'm sure MCI would be happy to provide you with that information on this large lake. Lake Memphremagog is 40 kilometres long, after all.

That should give you a pretty good idea of what's happening elsewhere. I know that in small lakes there have been extraordinary numbers of boats over the last few years, to the point where the issue of the lakes' carrying capacity has come up. At some point, we have to start assessing whether a lake is capable of regenerating after many boat crossings and a lot of boating activity during a season.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Thank you.

Does anyone else have a comment in terms of actual data versus opinion?

[Denise Cloutier]

I'd like to add something about the carrying capacity of the lakes. I could give you the example of Lac des Sables, in Saint-Agathe-des-Monts. This lake has a carrying capacity of about 31 motorboats, but there are currently 650.

Also, the new boats that are coming in are all new, large boats with powerful engines and ballast tanks. Their owners are completely disregarding the depth of the water they're navigating in.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

I've travelled throughout the Memphremagog area. In fact, I was there in the summer of 2023 visiting friends, and I've been to the Richelieu area previously.

Obviously, all of those areas border U.S. states: New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Are there any best practices from south of the border that we should be looking at?

[Denise Cloutier]

The regulations in Vermont came up last Tuesday. The state has established standards based on environmental studies conducted in Quebec, in terms of the distance from shore and the depth of the water body. These standards are generally aligned with the conclusions of studies conducted in Quebec.

[Constance Ramacieri]

I would add that the Vermont regulations are in their first year of implementation. They are specifically focused on wakeboarding. Because of the standards that have been adopted, wakeboarding is limited to only 30 lakes in Vermont.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Is there anything in the other states, such as New York, New Hampshire and Maine, or is it just Vermont?