Cottage Q&A
QUESTIONAre there rules or restrictions governing where you can anchor a swim raft offshore? Does it require lights?
ANSWER
If the water in front of your cottage is navigable, it falls under the Navigable Waters Protection Act, administered by Transport Canada, and any "works" you anchor offshore, including a swim raft or boat mooring, require approval as to their construction and location. What's considered navigable? "Just about any publicly accessible water that can float a boat," says inspection supervisor Barry Putt, with the Navigable Waters Protection (NWP) office in Sarnia, Ont.
To get an approval process started, contact your nearest Conservation Authority or Ministry of Natural Resources office for an application form, and complete it showing your project and its location. An NWP officer will visit and determine whether it requires a trip through the formal approval process, or can be handled under the simpler (and much faster) exemption process. While big constructions like bridges, dams, and causeways require formal approval, odds are a swim raft or mooring buoy will receive an exemption, Putt says, and should be given the go-ahead in two to six weeks. If the investigating officer is concerned about the location or visibility of a raft or buoy, he or she might issue the approval subject to certain requirements, including a specified set of markings, or even lights.
If you were to put out your raft or buoy without going through the approval process - and there are plenty of cottagers who do - what you're risking is probably not prosecution, but a potential liability problem, Putt suggests. "We don't go out looking for all the Javex bottles anchored a few feet off the dock - we don't have the manpower for that," he says. "But we do rely on the boating public to let us know about a situation that's dangerous." Even a large, anchored watertoy such as a floating trampoline could be a boating accident waiting to happen, Putt says, adding that if cottagers want advice on their situation they can ask for a visit from an NWP official.
* Published in the July/August 2002 issue of Cottage Life
