Evidence of meeting #136 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was waves.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
If I'm spending $250,000 on a vessel, then I think I should be ready to absorb other costs, other supplemental costs. It's like buying a house, practically. It's close to buying a house, I would say. It's only normal that there are going to be extra costs.
You're continuously saying that the federal government is not doing enough, but I think it's a bit stretched—
General Manager, MacDonald Turkey Point Marina Inc.
When you buy house, you don't pay 10%.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Mr. Chair, I'll leave the rest of my time to my colleague Stéphane Lauzon.
Liberal
Stéphane Lauzon Liberal Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC
Thank you very much.
Mr. Thomson, you are the manager of a private marina.
Is that correct?
General Manager, MacDonald Turkey Point Marina Inc.
I'm sorry. It's not being translated.
Liberal
Stéphane Lauzon Liberal Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC
All right.
Mr. Thomson, you manage a private marina. How many slips are there in your...
General Manager, MacDonald Turkey Point Marina Inc.
It's still not being translated.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
We're going to suspend for just one minute to make sure that translation is functioning properly.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
I call this meeting back to order.
It goes to show how important the work is that our interpreters do every single day, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank them.
Mr. Lauzon, you have the floor.
Liberal
Stéphane Lauzon Liberal Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC
I'd also like to thank the interpreters.
Mr. Thomson, you mentioned that you manage a private marina. How many slips are there in your marina?
General Manager, MacDonald Turkey Point Marina Inc.
We have 750 slips and we have 127 year-round cottages on our waterway. We have a four-pad boat ramp, so on a nice Saturday or Sunday afternoon, there could be up to 1,200 boats using our waterways. We're on approximately 83 acres.
Liberal
General Manager, MacDonald Turkey Point Marina Inc.
We were, I believe, 92% occupied this summer.
Liberal
Stéphane Lauzon Liberal Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC
When I got a grade of 90% in school, I considered it a good grade.
On what basis do you say there's a drop in clientele? Do boat owners come and talk to you about the fact that they're going to put less fuel in their boats because of the gas tax? Do people really talk to you about that?
General Manager, MacDonald Turkey Point Marina Inc.
Yes, the biggest complaint my staff and I get is the cost of fuel.
Liberal
Stéphane Lauzon Liberal Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC
You're talking about middle-class Canadians who earn $90,000 a year, buy a boat worth over $250,000 and have to pay the luxury tax applicable to that asset.
How much does it cost to fill up with gas at your marina for a boat worth, say, $250,000 or $300,000?
General Manager, MacDonald Turkey Point Marina Inc.
It all depends. If it's a pontoon boat, it could be $250. If it's an offshore fishing boat, it could be more than $500.
Liberal
Stéphane Lauzon Liberal Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC
So it costs $250 to fill up the tank.
If you take into account the tax applicable in relation to carbon pricing, which is 5%, do you think that has any impact? Do you think families will decide not to go boating for a week because of this?
Are you sure you want this to be mentioned in the report?
General Manager, MacDonald Turkey Point Marina Inc.
The customers have spoken many times—
Liberal
Stéphane Lauzon Liberal Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC
I'm sorry, but my time is up. I'm running out of time to get your answer.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Mr. Lauzon.
Mr. Barsalou-Duval, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.
Bloc
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Rennie, thank you for being with us again at the committee. I very much enjoyed the testimony you gave at your last appearance.
As I understand it, you conducted tests on the Rideau River, in the Ottawa area.
You mentioned that high-wake boats and pleasure cruisers would be the two main types of craft that would cause the biggest waves.
How can you compare waves produced by a small boat to those produced by a boat with a strong wake or a pleasure cruiser? What would a ratio of 1:10 or 1:100 mean?
What data are quantified? Have you done this exercise?
Professor, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
We saw that the waves from the wake boat and the cruiser were similar in magnitude, at 15 centimetres or so, for the significant wave height. The bass boat was about a third of that, at five centimetres.
We also measured the increase in turbidity for every wave that passed. We found there was nearly a linear increase. It was actually slightly more than linear. The exponent was 1.1. This means that even if the boat has a smaller wave, we have an understanding of how much sediment it kicks up. We could do a cumulative estimate of the impact of those smaller waves, as well as an assessment of the cumulative impact of the larger waves.
That's a bit of an empirical exercise. What we prefer to do—which is what we're going to do—is make a numerical model with the data we have, calibrate the model with that data and then apply it to different boat types. We'll be able to have a better estimate of the impact of each type of boat.