Make Your Voices Heard on Mandatory PFD Wear

Oct 8, 2024

We are now well into October of 2024 and the window to give Transport Canada public input on the issue of regulating mandatory PFD wear ends at the end of October.

If you have already gone to Transport Canada’s “Let’s Talk…” website on the matter, you may have seen the questions that are there and felt that those were crafted to promote mandatory PFD wear. I have had several people tell me the questions were very “leading”.  A letter I received from a reader who has a very impressive background in market research sent me the following letter:

He wrote, “The OPP made a very informative presentation on boating safety on August 28, 2023 to Safe Quiet Lakes (SQL), the Canadian Safe Boating Council, and the Muskoka Lakes Association (MLA). The statistics on marine fatalities, when expressed as percentages, were quite frightening. The true numbers are more informative.

There are 1.4 million adults in Ontario that have participated in boating activities over the past year. The OPP report that there were 261 marine fatalities in Ontario in the 10 years between 2013 and 2022, with 91 of them occurring in power boats.

This translates to an average of 9 deaths per year. In 2023 to August 28, there had been 5 deaths from motorized vessels in Ontario.

Nine fatalities per year, in a population of 1.4 million boaters =.0006%.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to know the circumstances of those 9: how many were non swimmers, how many were drunk, how many were at night or in cold water? How many were riding a rented PWC? And how many had their lights out?

Is it reasonable to impose Personal Flotation Device (PFD) regulations and cost on the 1.4 million responsible Ontario boaters to reduce the risk of 9 fatalities per year?

You just can’t fix stupid by passing laws.”

There is more to the PFD issue that I’m not hearing about. We already have regulations for each person aboard including having a properly-sized PFD near-at-hand along with a fairly detailed list of other safety-related equipment. At present, an officer is authorized to stop a vessel and check to see that the required safety equipment is all onboard. There are significant fines for failure to have the equipment. It’s all required for your safety and I agree that it should be onboard. But will officers still stop a boat and inspect for that safety equipment if they can clearly see that the people in the boat are wearing PFDs?

Maybe the PFDs are all they have. Maybe they are being “visibly good” to avoid being stopped when they have open beer onboard. The police officers are there for everyone’s safety. It’s more than just lifejackets.

Another thing I wonder about in this – should an accident occur and a person is killed when they aren’t wearing a PFD, will their insurance be invalid?

I have been told by a number of people that there are few options for getting proper education in boat operation. What I have heard for many years is that there are people who want to learn to drive a boat but they can’t locate an instructor to give the hands-on lessons they want.

I think boating safety for everyone is a bigger issue than just passing one simple law.

Andy Adams – Editor