legal info on moorings

Fixit

Fixit

Well-Known Member
I need some info on permanant moorings (ie lock block on ocean floot, chain up to a mooring bouy.)

specifically The Village of Lions bay has a draft bylaw they want to pass that would restrict houseboats, size of vessels, and length of stays on a mooring bouy, in addition to things like no swim floats over 3x3M etc...

my understanding is that it was federal waters, but the ground under the water was provincial. they claim they have the powers to regulate activities 1000f from high tide mark???

any help would be appreciated, please link to any legal info if possible
 
There is absolutely NO WAY the municipality can regulate federal water column (Ultra vires in legal jargon). They can restrict things are are outside of the purview of the common law of navigation - and the federal Ports and Shipping Acts. That is where their interpretations offer differ from that of common folk and often even the courts - what is "outside" of these federal laws.

The Province of BC does regulate the provincial Lands Act - and delegates certain portions of that to other "lesser" provincial authorities (e.g. Regional Districts, municipalities) - often called "fee simple" lands verses Provincial Crown Lands.

The Province's take on it - is that they "own" and control the sea bed - if the boundaries of that bottom are not instead federal crown land (First Nations reserve lands, military bases, bone-fide federal Ports lands, etc). Where that sea bed "ends" and the water column "begins" is what is up for debate.

My understanding is that if that "occupation" of the sea bed is for "normal" navigation purposes (e.g. anchoring in the context of navigation) - too bad - so sad for the Province/municipality.

If however, that occupation is termed "permanent" - well too bad - so sad - you're not navigating now. Again - the debate is on the "permanence" of that "occupation". Different users have different personal descriptions of that...

There's been some good discussion on these points already at: http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/index.php?posts/806957/
 
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From my experience it doesn't seem to matter if there are bylaws or not. No government body seems willing to claim responsibility for removing or monitoring unwanted anchored vessels. One can find articles throughout the province in major and minor newspapers discussing "problem areas" for "squatting" vessels or groups of vessels.
Even when an anchored vessel is restricting approach options for a deep sea dock it seems unclear who can or will remove it.
I can't give advice on who to contact to get it done properly, but I applaud your efforts. Seems like most people in your shoes seem to go ahead with it on the 'easier to ask forgiveness than permission' principle. Seems to be working so far...
 
I used to have a link to the Transport Canada website section that had all the rules/regs - just checked and for some reason its no longer there (the conspiracy theorist in me thinks there might be changes afoot) - it basically said that as long as it meets certain conditions (personal use, one only, buoy is certain size, not in shipping lane) then you didn't need to apply, you could just plunk it down. If it fell outside of the noted conditions, you needed to apply for permission. I'll see if I can't find a saved copy.
 
see attached...
 

Attachments

  • TP14799E.pdf
    2.2 MB · Views: 11
and this one, also...
 

Attachments

  • LOCAL_AUTHORITIES__GUIDE_-_ENGLISH_-_ACCESSIBLE_PDF.pdf
    436.6 KB · Views: 5
forgot this one...
 

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  • SOR-2008-120.pdf
    1.3 MB · Views: 4
build a dock/float with a transom and put bc numbers on it.
 
Fixit said:
https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs-675.html scroll down to the bottom,,, found the guidelines
Click to expand...
Not sure if this web page has been kept updated, Fixit. The Harper regime last updated this legislation on 2016-10-07 (2&1/2 years after the posted LISA RAITT order that you posted the web page for) - renamed it the "Navigation Protection Act" (as opposed to the old "Navigable Waters Protection Act" as listed on that web page), withdrew the old NWPA- and subsequently dropped protection for about 95% of the waterways out of the old legislation (keeping some waterways in protection - mostly those in Conservative ridings). The "updated" designated waterways are now listed in the schedule in the back of the Act: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/N-22/page-8.html#h-27

I see the "Pacific Ocean" listed - so Lion's Bay waters would be included, though.

It looks to me as if they replaced the RAITT orders with the Navigable Waters Works Regulations, see: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/C.R.C.,_c._1232/page-1.html#h-4

This looks pertinent to the previous discussion over derelict vessels, though: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/N-22/page-4.html#docCont
 
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