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[chris gadsden]

The Master was looking into this with the Fed's a few months ago and if I remember it is a complex matter getting this stopped, I will see him tomorrow and will ask him what they told him and report back.

Nick says it most likely comes down to dealing with the Ministry of Transport to make these changes. He has been told a real lot of hoops to go through to get it done.

Any one that wants to take it on maybe it would be good advice to talk to the local CO service as well as Fisheries Oceans to let them know of your concerns and seek their advice as well as maybe getting some ideas from them how to proceed. Maybe with the change in the Federal government a year ago there maybe could be some changes from when Nick talked to them.

Please keep us posted on how this goes if anyone here steps up. Might be worth to talk to the Chilliwack Progress if you are going to take this on for some media attention to this on going issue.

[Dave]

Well Chris, let's hope someone does take this on ... you (especially you!) and I have done our share, and continue to do so, for issues we believe in; time for younger blood to come forward to champion a ban on power craft above the Bailey bridge on the lower Vedder River.

[chris gadsden]

Well Chris, let's hope someone does take this on ... you (especially you!) and I have done our share, and continue to do so, for issues we believe in; time for younger blood to come forward to champion a ban on power craft above the Bailey bridge on the lower Vedder River.

I hope so. In a lot of cases people do a lot of complaining but donot get proactive on such things. In our younger days we got involved in a lot of issue too many when we look back but now it takes a lot of energy to do what we did in the past.

[clarki]

Governance of boating restrictions is primarily a federal responsibility; see the Vessel Operations Restrictions Regulations of the Canada Shipping Act. The Canada Shipping Act is administered by Transport Canada.
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/sor-2008-120/FullText.html

So, the question is how to influence a change in the regulation.

My recommendation would be to consult with the MP for Chilliwack: Mark Strahl (other MP's may be able to assist but the river is not in their riding) . He should be able to provide guidance  with understanding and navigating the process of amending a federal regulation/statute.

Alternately I would suggest contact Transport Canada's Pacific Region Office http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/pacific/menu.htm. They should be able to provide similar guidance.

As others have mentioned, for this to get some traction you will need to have the support of a lot of stakeholders in order to influence Transport Canada to revise the regulation: federal (the local MP, Department of Fisheries and Oceans), provincial (Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resources and/or Ministry of the Environment), the municipality of Chilliwack and NGOs. 

[GordJ]

Sure sounds like a lot of work for two or three boats a year. Maybe spend all that time and energy on a bigger issue?

[bigrig]

Thanks for all the good constructive advice offered.Maybe I will email our favourite mayor and see if she can help guide us with some of her expertise as well.Thanks again

[Dave]

Thanks for all the good constructive advice offered.Maybe I will email our favourite mayor and see if she can help guide us with some of her expertise as well.Thanks again

I hope you do and please keep us up to speed on what the Mayor has to say about this.

[chris gadsden]

Sure sounds like a lot of work for two or three boats a year. Maybe spend all that time and energy on a bigger issue?

In all respect it is a lot more than that and with all the increased usage the last few years and growing all the time there is a serious mishap just waiting to happen. Thanks bigrig for getting the ball rolling on this issue.

[armytruck]

Sure sounds like a lot of work for two or three boats a year. Maybe spend all that time and energy on a bigger issue?

Yah , like maybe ,gravel extraction

[cutthroat22]

An eyewitness account of a boat running over a painted turtle then smashing into a spotted owl would expedite the process.

[chris gadsden]

Yah , like maybe ,gravel extraction

We are on that for the last few months, a meeting we had scheduled with all agencies for this week was just resheduled to after the election. I wonder why that happened?

[bigblue]

A few weeks ago I saw a high powered jet boat fly up the lower Vedder and come back down a few hours later. They weren't fishing but just out for a joy ride. From the time it took for them to come back down, I speculate they went way up the river. Just tearing up the redds is just irresponsible IMO. Just because you own an ATV does not make it right to hot shot over sensitive environmental areas. This kind of mindless activity needs to be put to a STOP.

[Dave]

That is a daily occurrence during the summer; disrespectful to anglers, swimmers, tubers, people enjoying some solitude with their kids, birds, etc.  Last summer my wife and I watched a jet skier chase a mother merganser and her chicks ... sickening.  Scaring geese and their young happens daily.
What entitles people to do that???

My guess is shaming them on social media will have far quicker results than any government action. 

[Speyfitter]

It says on page #5 of the regulations synopsis: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/fish/regulations/docs/1719/fishing_synopsis_2017-19_provincial.pdf
"Boating restrictions are adopted for either fisheries management or public safety reasons." 

So can they, with the stroke of a pen in the freshwater fishing regulations implement the following restriction, easily?:
"No powered boats... boat motors of all types (internal combustion, steam and electric) are prohibited on these waters."
Or is there greater forces at play here to take away the right to run your power boat on a navigable water way?

It also says at the bottom of page#5:
"Please note: most boating restrictions are the responsibility of Transport Canada Marine. They are published here as a courtesy to anglers but, due to space limitations, may not be complete.
For more information write to:
Transport Canada Marine Office of Boating Safety 700-800 Burrard St Vancouver BC V6Z 2J8"

The only reason I ask is I know about 4 +/- jet boats are sunk on the Upper Pitt River annually (from what I've been told by many sources), yet that river remains open to jet boat traffic still to this day. I don't know of *many* jet boat related accidents, yet, on the Chilliwack. And surely the guides would be PISSED if they would not be allowed to access the Upper Pitt via Jet boat any longer, so I'd imagine some politics are at play. So surely if this is a public safety issue then they would have closed jet boat access on the Upper Pitt long ago which would pave the way for the Chilliwack? And if it was a fisheries issue i.e. jet boats are churning up eggs/juveniles in a noteworthy fashion, would they not have to close jet boat traffic to all similar sized, and smaller rivers with salmonid populations?

I'm more of a drifter myself. Don't have any strong feelings either way, but just want to see some consistency here and not let feelings of some A-hole rip past me ruining "my" water get the best of me, because really, it's not "my" water. I'm just a guest on the river that day. 

[Speyfitter]

Forgot to mention - a GoPro is a great tool to have.....just make sure it's on.