Thank you very much.
I want to raise an issue I have heard about from people in cottage country in Ontario, which is a few hours from my constituency, maybe a few hours southwest of here. There has been a Transport Canada regulatory change that is causing some significant concern. This is the issue as I understand it. There are floating cottages, which are a concern to municipalities and residents in this part of central Ontario, as well as other parts of Canada. There are companies now popping up to build these things.
Previously Transport Canada had regulations and standards for float homes, but now something has changed and Transport Canada is determining that these are small vessels, which means they do not have to comply with local bylaws or houseboat regulations. There are, obviously, environmental concerns with grey water and maybe even potentially black water that's being deposited into the lakes without the appropriate care.
In fact they don't even float. They are jacked up on poles from the lake bed, so they certainly don't fit into what I would determine to be the definition of a vessel that can actually move. I'm not sure if you're aware of this issue or if you have seen these structures at all in person. I have a photo that someone has sent me and it doesn't look a lot like a vessel. It's certainly not about to move anywhere.
Again, are you aware of this? What can be done to change this because it seems to me they have been misclassified and this is causing quite a concern?.