Good afternoon. My name is Dave Moffatt. I'm the provincial marine coordinator for the Ontario Provincial Police. I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities for this opportunity to speak to you regarding marine safety and security across the country.
I've been an OPP member for 29 years, and a marine enforcement officer and marine instructor for 24 years. I am one of the executive chairs of the Canadian enforcement marine advisers, or CEMA, which consists of over 70 marine enforcement officers across the country. In my current role as the provincial marine coordinator, I oversee everything marine within the OPP and communicate with Transport Canada regarding legislation—ideally to make marine transportation and recreational boating safer in OPP jurisdictional waterways—through my work with CEMA across the country.
I have five quick matters I'd like to address today.
Firstly, the OPP has worked diligently to inform Transport Canada about the need for legislation on the mandatory wearing of life jackets for vessels six metres and under due to Ontario's 87% fatality rate among boaters not wearing life jackets or PFDs. The OPP has authored resolutions, passed by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, supporting this issue. Legislation on the mandatory wearing of life jackets would decrease boating fatality rates across Canada.
Secondly, the OPP is in conversation with Transport Canada to enhance enforcement officers' authorities on the water. This conversation includes “blue light” authority to stop vessels when they are signalled by police, and to suspend vessel operator licences. This suspension would occur when an operator is charged with impaired operation due to alcohol or drugs, or when an operator registers a warning on an approved screening device when tested for alcohol consumption. Currently, there is no suspension authority for this. Essentially, an operator can drive their vessel after a police interaction and subsequently after a suspension of their Ontario motor vehicle driver's licence.
Thirdly, Transport Canada's marine safety inspectors, or MSIs, have a large responsibility to inspect commercial vessels across the country. They work within small reinforcement organizations to inspect vessels in their areas of responsibility, which equates to a small number of commercial vessel inspections in totality. Enforcement officers are busy day to day ensuring waterways are safe for everyone using them through education or the enforcement of legislation. This is why I bring it up today. There needs to be shared, compatible participation between the recreational vessel and commercial vessel communities to ensure a safe environment on the water.
The Contraventions Act allows enforcement officers to charge a violator using a federal act like the Canada Shipping Act, 2001, by means of a provincial offence notice. This is essentially a ticket. The charge stays with a criminal court, where it needs to be. It goes to our provincial traffic court system. Charges through the Contraventions Act can only be issued for offences identified in the contraventions regulations. These regulations are heavily geared towards the recreational vessel community. About 95% to 97% of them are for the recreational community, not the small commercial vessel community. Therefore, there is little to no proactive small commercial vessel enforcement done because of the lack of small commercial vessel charges available through the contraventions regulations.
To ensure small commercial vessel compliance on our waterways, why not use us, the patrolling and enforcement officers, who are the eyes and ears of Transport Canada, and not just the MSIs? Have the officers educate people and enforce small commercial vessel legislation proactively, especially when an accused is present on a stopped vessel. Currently, enforcement officers have to pass the file on to an MSI for a follow-up investigation, which can be very problematic, as an accused has to be located at a later time and sometimes cannot be located. An update to the contraventions regulations to include small commercial vessels is needed.
Fourthly, as a provincial marine coordinator, I rely on collision statistics to anticipate what issues need to be addressed on our waterways provincially. Due to the lack of mandated collision reporting in Canada for recreational vessels, we cannot learn the issues involving these collisions in a timely manner. A report comes out by TC, but that's seldom, and it's usually very outdated by about three to four years. I believe we need recreational collision reporting for vessels in order to learn about what is happening on our waterways annually.
My last point, which I know you've heard about, is about the flare disposal program that Transport Canada did not fund this year. As you know, vessels are required to carry flares on board depending on their size, the size of the waterway and their proximity to land. Flares expire four years after the manufacture date, and when they expire, boaters have no way to dispose of them. Operators resort to disposing the flares improperly by putting them in landfills, setting them off illegally or leaving them in a corner of the garage and basement for years, which can lead to a fire or an explosion. Funding needs to be returned so that there's a proper and safe way for Canadian boaters to dispose of their flares.
Thank you very much for the opportunity and the time.