SCVA Meeting Update

Our SCV Association meeting on April 4th went well. We concentrated on the upcoming National CMAC Meeting in Ottawa on April 24/25 and divided up tasks/areas for each board member to research for our presentation(s).

We are contacting Transport Canada to find out exactly how much time we will be allowed for a presentation so we have a solid time frame to work too. We are also hoping that we will only need to be there for one day as that alone is a big time commitment for all of us right now! (now looking like 2 days)

We have reserved website names and have them confirmed. Once we get approval for all of them (now done) and get an email address we will begin to build a website as well as start a Blog/Facebook/Twitter media setup for the Association. When that is done and bank acct/signing officers setup (NOW DONE) for Electronic Fund Transfers we will be able to make a big push for membership. We have been holding back on this as we don't want to disappoint people because we are not fully set up and also want to appear organized.

We are also working towards assessing the total number of Small Commercial Vessels in Ontario. This is, in a way, is our most important task for a number of reasons;
1) nobody really knows how many there are
2) the higher the number the more weight we will carry with TC
3) most of the owners/operators don't know about these 'new' rules, don't realize they are 'commercial' and therefore don't realize they are operating illegally!

Assessing this number accurately is tricky and we don't want to get it wrong and be told by Transport Canada we 'made facts up'. We have talked through going to the 'Ontario Marine Operators Association' but feel that it is impossible for them to know who is commercial and who isn't (see 3 above). We have decided that the best initial approach (for the CMAC meeting on April 23-26) is for us as individuals to approach the marina owners that we know personally and ask them to take a look at their boats and tell us how many operate commercially (including the part time real estate and satellite dish installers etc.).

As the marina owners know their customers well and their boats intimately, that number in conjunction with the total numbers of vessels in the marina will give us an very accurate percentage per marina. As our board members know each marina owner personally we should be able to get this info quickly, perhaps with a little help from my Chamber of Commerce. This 'calculation' will be repeated for all the marinas our board members know personally giving a very accurate 'snap shot' of the percentage of commercial boats as a whole in our area. If we then go to the Ontario Marina Association and ask for the total number of boats in Ontario we can start to put a 'guesstimate' of the total number of Small Commercial Vessels. This secondary number will not be completely accurate but we have to start somewhere!!

Also attending our meeting was an insurance agent who does a lot of work for our board members. We questioned him on how the insurance companies see the Transport Canada regulations and there enforcement and also how they might react in a injury or accidental death scenario on a boat that is technically 'illegal' (by TC standards). Tim made some interesting points and him and I are tasked with developing these into the CMAC presentation and also as a discussion paper for Tony Clements office.