Dear Editor:
After reading the Osoyoos Times article a couple of weeks ago titled “Council approves new water taxi and boat rental business from town marina”, I felt compelled to write my first letter to the editor!
Mayor Stu Wells’ comment on the current mandatory legal requirement that every boater must possess a Pleasure Craft Operators License – “When you look at these boating safety certificates, it doesn’t have anything to do with the actual operation of a boat … it has to do with what I would call rules of the road, with things like avoiding sailboats and coming in and out of the harbour.”
His comments and abject failure to uphold and maintain the law when it comes to boat renters is an absolute failure of leadership.
His comments exhibit a complete lack of insight and understanding about boating safety and the reasoning behind the federal government’s boat licensing regulations and attempts to improve safety on the water and reduce the loss of life each year.
The mayor chooses instead to stick his head in the sand and take a spineless approach rather than exhibit any sense of leadership on the safe boating issue.
The best analogy I can think of is the mayor in the movie Jaws, who thought closing the beach would hurt tourism.
There was a boating fatality on Osoyoos Lake last year, caused by boaters failing to follow his so-called ‘rules of the road.’
We certainly wouldn’t want to see a repeat of that horrible incident again this year or at any time in the future.
The mayor just increased the risk of a similar incident on the water by allowing people who can read a piece of paper in 20 seconds, sign a liability waiver and go out and put the pedal to the metal on the lake.
His whining about keeping a level playing field for all businesses is utter nonsense as the ‘law’ was created to apply to all.
The obvious solution that would maintain a competitive equilibrium and show leadership by supporting the legal requirement to be properly licensed and thus increase boat safety on our lake, would be to require all boat renters to possess a legally required Pleasure Craft Operator’s License as a condition of renting a boat.
This would apply uniformly to all boating rental outlets, just as it is a requirement to hold a valid and current driver’s license when you want to rent a car.
After all, it’s the law! Mayor, you need to give your head a shake!
This was not a good decision by the mayor and council.
Chris Boxall
Osoyoos, B.C.
