From Cadboro Bay in Victoria, my name is Eric Dahli. I am the chair of the Cadboro Bay Dead Boats Society.

I'm not going to talk at this moment about licence of occupation for mooring buoys, about riparian rights or about intertidal zones. A lot of that is contained in the information that we have provided.

Let's start off, and let's pretend that one day a rusty old RV drives onto your lawn. The RV owner and his friends start throwing their garbage onto your lawn. Then—oh, my goodness—they empty their sewage holding tank in your driveway. Then they move to another neighbour, and the party continues. I also want you to imagine that, while all this is going on, you're living on the seabed with the creatures that live in the eelgrass. Moored boats are dumping garbage and sewage on you.

We have a problem here in Cadboro Bay. Starting in 2017, we removed from the beach over 15 vessels of various sizes, mostly sailboats and one burned-out hulk of a houseboat. We are presently looking to work with the provincial ministry and the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, because Cadboro Bay is blessed with having two municipalities. It's a multijurisdictional thing right from the get-go.

We're also working with the Songhees Nation and a group called SeaChange. We're cleaning up the bay and replanting eelgrass.

With the licence of occupation, which will be managed by the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, boats that come into the mooring field will require insurance. They will require holding tanks. We're hopeful that a minimal fee, which has not been determined yet.... This will be money in and money out. No one is trying to make any money here. We just want to keep the bay clean.

With regard to the people who are mooring in the bay, there's a housing crisis. We know that. If people are following the rules and doing everything properly, that is certainly not a problem—living in the bay. We would like to talk to somebody, perhaps the RCMP marine division, about wellness checks on the people living in the bay. Winter's coming. We get southeasters in Cadboro Bay, and we don't want other boats up on the beach. Once they hit the beach, they become quite dangerous. Every little kid wants to play pirate. They want to climb all over the boats, and these are not safe.

We've looked at other jurisdictions. Washington state, just south of us here, has a system that we think is pretty good. A few years ago, I went back to my homeland of Norway. We took a cruise—and I would call it fjord-intensive—from Oslo to the North Cape. I counted derelict vessels on that trip. When we got back, the number was zero. I don't know what they're doing, but they're doing it well.

Thank you very much.