July 15, 2025

To begin with, we received an important note from John Gullick, Manager of Special Programs for CanBoat / Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons who wanted to add that there is now only one event left in late September in the Distress Flare Collection Program for 2025. He wanted us to emphasize to our readers that this program is offered by CanBoat in cooperation with CIL Orion and it was funded by the Canadian Power and Sail Squadron’s Foundation.

In 2025 it was not funded by, nor offered by Transport Canada as it had been in the past. To date there is no funding for the program to be continued in 2026. Without renewed funding and support from Transport Canada, this program will no longer exist. We plan to update our readers as the Transport Canada application process for 2026 begins and we will be appealing to our readers and the boating industry, to show their support for funding this very important program.

What to do with expired distress flares is one of those challenges our industry faces and it’s the sort of thing we need to talk about when we meet with our peers. In this Edition of Boating Industry Canada News Week Digest, our President, Jill Snider writes about her recent experience joining a Boating Ontario “Meet the Board Mixer” event.  Jill manages many of our biggest projects and small details too. She was delighted to have conversations with many key industry members at the Boating Ontario event.

We face many thorny issues; our continued opposition to the luxury tax, unregulated floating accommodations, boating safety issues and far more.

Jill invites our readers to reach out to her with an email to offer your input on important issues and to share your views. Keeping a finger on the pulse of the industry is very important.

One thing I suspect we are all interested in, is our new Government’s push for affordable housing. Young people desperately need a way to buy into housing if they ever hope to start a family, (and we certainly want them to have that opportunity) but will changes there, undermine the home equity that older Canadians are counting on for their retirement?

Real estate values underpin many families in their dreams of owning a cottage at the lake and that in turn is critical to our ability to sell and service boats. I recently learned about a financing concept being advanced in British Columbia to help with their housing affordability.

Our future customers are being held back in life and that will be a big problem if we can’t all find a solution soon. So much to talk about this summer!

Andy Adams – Editor