Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to appear before your committee.

My name is Denise Cloutier and I'm vice-president of Coalition Navigation. I'm here today with André Philippe Hébert, director.

The Coalition for Responsible and Sustainable Navigation, which we will call Coalition Navigation, is a pan-Canadian non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure that legislation on the use of motorboats protects Canada's water ecosystems and waterways.

Since 2013, the organization has developed and submitted legislative proposals to the federal government based on scientific facts in order to regulate the use of motorized boats on Canada's waters.

Our objective is to ensure that legislation is based on science and on the best scientific knowledge to protect our bodies of water and ensure their quality. We're also involved in funding research that will deepen our understanding of these issues.

We know now that navigation has an impact on bodies of water, including a major impact on drinking water intakes. As everyone knows, many bodies of water serve as drinking water intakes.

We also know that navigation has an impact on fauna and flora, including by contributing to the proliferation of invasive alien species, to the deterioration of water quality and to lake eutrophication. And as we know, eutrophication can lead to the development of cyanobacteria with toxic potential.

Moreover, navigation contributes to the breakdown not only of natural infrastructure, such as riparian strips, but also of anthropogenic infrastructure, like docks and dams.

It also has an impact on the physical and mental health of local residents and on user security.

In addition, navigation contributes to the production of greenhouse gases not only by combustion-powered navigation, but also by the eutrophication of lakes.

Everything we do is based on two scientific studies produced in Quebec. According to these studies, a wake boat with its ballasts engaged stirs up bottom sediments up to seven metres deep, which contributes to the eutrophication of the lakes. In addition, a wake boat operating within 300 metres of shore will erode that shore, since it takes at least 300 metres for the energy produced to completely dissipate. As such, this type of craft should navigate more than 300 metres from shore, and even beyond a 600-metre corridor from shore, ideally.

Navigation Coalition wants to protect water bodies and ensure that navigation is based on the bathymetry of the lakes. Bathymetry allows us to know the depth and width of waterways. We cross-reference this information with scientific studies to improve navigation practices.

We want a safe and sustainable navigation code. More specifically, we'd like to replace the current “Safe Boating Guide” with a mandatory code, similar to the traffic code, which would include a preamble emphasizing the impact of navigation on the environment. Currently, the “Safe Boating Guide” doesn't include any environmental concepts.

We also want navigators to be aware of the impact navigation has on the environment. While it is very easy to obtain a pleasure craft operator card online, the mandatory prerequisite training doesn't contain any information on the impact of navigation on the environment. We want boat card requirements to be revised, driving tests to be mandatory just as they are under the traffic code, and modules covering all the information related to sustainable and safe navigation integrated into navigation courses.

Navigation Coalition has developed a range of services to support municipalities in the complicated process of amending regulations in order to obtain navigation restrictions. We want to work with municipalities, while respecting the rules set out in the vessel operation restriction regulations. In fact, that work has already begun.

We also want to navigate towards a sustainable future. I don't know if you have our presentation in hand, ladies and gentlemen, but one of the pages shows an advertisement by boat manufacturers, where you can see a lake, a boat, and the words “unlimited playground”. That isn't true, however, since lakes are not unlimited playgrounds. We want to counter these ads with an awareness campaign.

We've already built our campaign. It includes six messages, which I will now show you.

First, we talk about navigating while preserving the ecosystem. This is for people who make waves. I don't know if you can see this ad in the presentation, but it's very appealing. People can relate to it. It is designed to encourage people to pay attention to the environment.

Then we talk about navigating while keeping waters clear—