User fees ahoy for Canadian boaters as more take to the water

The federal government is steaming ahead with plans to introduce user fees for recreational boat owners at a time when more and more Canadians are choosing water over land. 

Transport Canada told a virtual meeting of the Canadian Marine Advisory Council that the number of Canadians who obtained a pleasure craft operators card this year increased by 67 per cent.

As of Sept. 15, the department had issued 237,810 operator cards compared to 142,000 in all of 2019.

This year has been "exceptionally busy due to COVID," Transport Canada said in documents prepared for last week's meeting with industry representatives.

The department detailed its proposed fee changes during the meeting, including a new $15 fee beginning in 2022 on all pleasure craft licences and a new, undetermined surcharge to help pay for the removal of abandoned and wrecked vessels.

New fees are also planned for pleasure craft operators cards, but they will not impact the 4.4 million Canadians who already hold one.

The lifetime operators card is issued after a person passes a mandatory test that demonstrates basic watercraft competency.

The updated fees would include an $8.50 "test materials" fee per certificate and a $5,000 fee charged to course providers every five years. The government doesn't currently collect money for testing or card replacements as those services are provided by private companies.

The operators card differs from a pleasure craft licence, which is used as identification for a vessel. There is currently no licence fee.

Changes to licences

The new $15 licence fee would apply to all pleasure craft with engines of more than 10 horsepower. 

The requirement for a pleasure craft licence would also be expanded to include any vessel over six metres regardless of engine size, a move to include sailboats.

Transport Canada will end lifetime non-renewable licences and reduce the licence renewal period to five years from 10.

The department wants to recover the $2 million it spends each year administering pleasure craft licences.

The proposed fee changes are reasonable, said Pat Nelder of Boating Atlantic, an industry association in Atlantic Canada.

But Nelder said she's skeptical that requiring more vessels to have a licence would help Transport Canada identify owners of derelict boats. 

"They want to make the licensing program more robust so that they know who's wrecking and abandoning boats, however, probably the boats that are abandoned would never be licensed anyway," she said.

"In order to support the work that they're doing, they feel that they should put a surcharge on that licensing fee. But so far, we haven't heard any more about the surcharge."

Abandoned, wrecked vessels

There are 1,481 "vessels of concern" in Canada, according to the coast guard's inventory of abandoned and wrecked vessels. The survey was released at the advisory council meeting.

The majority of those vessels — 897 — are in the Western region. There are 367 in the Atlantic region, and 217 in the Central and Arctic region.

The survey said the owner is unknown for 83 per cent of the vessels.

Transport Canada said it's still exploring options for a surcharge that would help pay for the removal of those ships, with a more concrete proposal expected in several months.

It's looking at the model used in Washington state where recreational boat owners are charged an annual $3 fee.

If approved, the new surcharge would likely be introduced in 2022 and may be applied during the licence fee transaction.

Sean Best, a spokesperson for Transport Canada, said the department is also considering a "moderate regulatory charge" to bankroll a new fund dedicated to cleaning up wrecked vessels.

"The introduction of the new pleasure craft licence service fee may also coincide with the launch of a vessel remediation fund," Best said in a statement.