A survey about making life-jackets mandatory? For a lot of people, the response is a no-brainer
There's no 'pleasure' in pleasure crafts when somebody drowns, Gord Follett writes
A column I wrote in July 2022 — in which I questioned why it still wasn't mandatory for us to wear life-jackets while boating — created quite a stir across the country. It received far more attention than any article I'd written before or since, with more than 240,000 views.
While the vast majority of comments I saw applauded my stand, some were less than impressed and didn't hesitate sharing their views. A few days after the column was published, when I wondered in a follow-up Facebook post just who would be against life-jackets, I was informed by a water safety organization in Ontario that some of those more strongly against making them mandatory are boating groups.
There's no pleasure in pleasure crafts when somebody drowns because they were not wearing a life-jacket or PFD (personal flotation device).
Needless to say, I was both delighted and encouraged in September to learn that Transport Canada has launched a public consultation and survey on potential options for the mandatory wearing of PFDs and life-jackets on recreational vessels up to six metres in length, or about 19½ feet.
Up to now, according to Transport Canada, "You are required by law to have a life-jacket or PFD on board for each person on a watercraft."
That's it — "on board."
As long as we have a life-jacket on the seat, floor or in the bow of a tiny 14-foot aluminum boat, we're good to go on the largest lakes we can find, or even the mighty Atlantic Ocean.
Among other questions, the survey asks, "Would you support Transport Canada requiring all recreational boaters to wear PFDs/life-jackets in all circumstances?"
It took me less than two seconds to reply with a resounding "Yes!"
Many of us believe it should have been mandatory on smaller crafts 50 years ago.
Life-jackets used as seat cushions may protect your butt on a bumpy ride, but they do not save lives when used as such.
Twenty-one-year-old Toby Peddle was one of the "Lucky 7" commercial fishermen who were rescued from a life-raft in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean 48 hours after their boat, the 15-metre Elite Navigator, caught fire and sank in July.
Nobody expects life-jackets to be required while working on vessels that size, but having them with life-rafts in emergency situations is a different story.
Peddle and fellow fisherman Harold Howell were the only two "not lucky enough to get into a floater suit nor a life-jacket" during that terrifying ordeal, but he says they knew everybody was looking out for one another.
"The boys that had the suits had a lot more hope, for sure. They certainly increase your chance of survival a lot. But we knew we were all in this together," Peddle said.
Barry Fordham of the LifeSaving Society's Newfoundland and Labrador branch is encouraging residents to "make the right choice and vote 'yes' on the survey."
"This is not about taking away rights and freedoms, as some people say," Fordham said.
"You have less chance of sucking water into your lungs from the gasp reflex from the cold water shock because a life-jacket will bob you back up, as opposed to going deeper without one."
Fordham said there's more people wearing life-jackets than not, these days, and if this is enacted into law, it'll definitely save lives — even your own.
Every year, more than 500 people drown across the country, with 166 of them, on average, boating-related.
The Canadian Red Cross says wearing a life-jacket "could eliminate up to 90 per cent of all boating-related drownings."
Ninety per cent. And it still is not mandatory.
Statistics by the Lifesaving Society for Newfoundland and Labrador show the numbers of drowning deaths range from a high of 37 in 2010 to a low of 11 in 2019. Eighty-nine per cent of these were male, with 43 per cent occurring in the ocean and 37 per cent in ponds and lakes.
Sixty-five per cent of drownings occurred between May and September.
One particularly contentious issue in this province involves thousands of saltwater bird hunters, many of whom hunt from boats around six metres in length — give or take six inches — and who simply do not want to wear life-jackets or PFDs.
I've been there; bundled up in freezing winter temperatures as we board the 18-foot open boat, struggling to get a life-jacket over the heavy clothes, then trying to shoulder a shotgun.
Unable to hit anything on the wing or water because of the uncomfortable and awkward stance, I often hauled the life-jacket off and tossed it on a seat.
But that was when I was younger, stronger and, well, not as careful.
Floater suits are becoming more common in smaller boats on the ocean year after year, and if I were to regularly hunt and fish the Atlantic again, I would definitely wear one.
When I think back on some of the chances I took on and around the ocean while eider duck and turr hunting, I thank my lucky stars to still be here today.
The Transport Canada consultation is underway until Nov. 4. You can learn more here.
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