May 24, 2022

As of May 2, many of the Canada Border Services Small Vessel Reporting Stations were not scheduled to be open to serve cross-border boaters during our short and critically important summer.

This was a situation from earlier in the Government’s response to the COVID pandemic. We learned of this through the Boating Ontario association. One Boating Ontario member marina on Lake Erie had a 15-boat group of American boaters, call to cancel their planed vacation at his marina this summer because Canada Border Services had mothballed nearly 80% of previously approved ports of entry.

In just over two-weeks, working together, our marine trade associations and their associated tourism associations had managed to bring the situation to the attention of the government and get most of the Small Vessel Reporting Stations to open. On May 19,  the Hon. Marco Mendicino, Federal Minister of Public Safety, announced ‘that services will resume at over 300 marine ports of entry’ and that this will happen ‘this week’. 

While all the marine trade associations were active on this, the Great Lakes share a huge stretch of border with the United States and Boating Ontario was front and centre on this. Their May 19 announcement made a point of thanking the members for input to their market survey and for so much open dialogue and information.

They also expressed sincere thanks to Joe Gatfield, Commodore of the Windsor Yacht Club for his efforts on this fight and a very special word of thanks to MP Dave Epp who stood up for the boating industry and on Tuesday, May 17, walked Boating Ontario’s letter across the floor in the House of Commons to place our concerns directly into the Minister’s hands.

This is an excellent and very important business result that once again, demonstrates the value and importance of our marine trade associations.

So, let’s get the summer of 2022 launched! Wishing you a great season this year.

Andy Adams – Editor