The Vessel Operation Restriction Regulations: Providing provinces and municipalities with a greater role in managing their waterways

Background

The Minister of Transport regulates navigation on Canada’s lakes, rivers and waterways to ensure safe recreational boating and to protect the marine environment. Transport Canada officials work with local authorities to address water safety concerns like excessive speed and risks to the environment like shoreline erosion and water quality. We do this with measures like restrictions on speed, hours of operation, the type of propulsion allowed to operate, and the type of activities. These measures become part of the Vessel Operation Restriction Regulations (VORR) under the Canada Shipping Act, 2001.

We recognize that we need to modernize the process for requesting and implementing restrictions under the VORR. We need to simplify the process for proposing a restriction and shorten the time it takes to implement it.

Transport Canada wants to modernize the VORR to make it faster, easier, and more effective for local authorities to implement restrictions.

The proposed intended changes would allow the Minister of Transport to:

• Use “Incorporation by Reference" to modify the VORR schedules more quickly
• Issue Ministerial Orders for implementing restrictions on pleasure craft activities not currently listed in the VORR, before going through the full regulatory process

We want to hear from you

We want to hear from stakeholders and the Canadian public. Your opinion and feedback are important!

How to participate

• Read our intentions paper to better understand how Transport Canada proposes to modernize the VORR
• Choose “Register” at the top of the page, and join the discussion under the “Have Your Say” tab
• You can also submit responses to our survey on the modernization of VORR
• Or you can email us your comments at MSSRegulations-ReglementsSSM@tc.gc.ca