‘Safe Travel’: OPP makes noise with boating awareness week

PRESS RELEASE
ONTARIO PROVINCIAL POLICE
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Canada Safe Boating Week 2024 is May 18-24. This initiative is designed to increase public compliance with safe boating measures and ultimately save lives. The OPP will be looking for impaired driving, carrying requirements for life jackets and personal flotation devices (PFDs), offenses under the Liquor Licensing Act and offenses under the Canada Shipping Act 2001.

During Safe Boating Awareness Week, boaters and paddlers are encouraged to be aware of every aspect of safe waterway travel. Additionally, by wearing the appropriate life jacket or personal flotation device and boating sober and drug-free, ensure you and your vessel are prepared and safe for the season, take a boating course, be alert and in safety in cold water.

Please note that a properly fitted lifejacket is not only designed to keep boaters and paddlers afloat, it also helps turn them onto their backs, allowing them to breathe if they become unconscious. For 21 of the 23 people who lost their lives in boating/rowing incidents in 2023, their vessel either capsized or fell overboard. Seventeen of those who died were not wearing life jackets. Surviving these types of incidents usually hinges on whether or not you choose to wear a life jacket which, when worn properly, remains tasked with keeping you afloat the entire time you are in the water.

On those beautiful sunny days, most of us want to get out on the water to use our boats. Just remember that any vessel in the race that has any type of engine requires the operator to hold a valid Recreational Craft Operator Card (PCOC) or proof of competency equivalency.

And, any vessel on the water (even rowboats and canoes) requires all the necessary safety equipment on board.

Standard equipment includes:

• 15 m floating line
• waterproof flashlight
• whistle – *must be Pealess* (or some type of sound signaling device eg horn or portable horn etc.)
• rescue bucket
• an oar or oar
• life jackets or personal flotation devices (PFDs) for each person on board (* self-inflating PFDs must to be worn*)
• and, depending on the size of the ship and the engine used, may require suitable flares and a fire extinguisher

Power and age restrictions:

• under 12 years. can operate a boat with up to 10 hp
• 12 years. – 16 years. can operate a boat with up to 40 HP
• 16 years. and older, there are no horsepower restrictions
• under 16 years. regardless of supervision must NOT operate a personal watercraft (PWC): Sea-doo, Jet-Ski, Waverunner

The OPP Marine Program has a fleet of 152 vessels and 365 qualified marine officers employed to enforce Ontario’s boating laws and boater safety on more than 110,000 square kilometers (95 percent) of Ontario’s lakes and rivers.

Safe Boating Awareness Week is an annual national campaign led by the Canadian Council for Safe Boating. This year’s campaign runs from May 18-24, 2024.

If you see a suspected impaired driver, call 911 or contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122.

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