The Thompson-Nicola Regional District will be asking to regulate boat usage on lakes and rivers during emergencies.
Board chair Ken Gillis says the TNRD met recent with Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth asking for direction on the topic, which he says came up because of boat concerns during flooding in 2017 and 2018.
“There were all kinds of places where serious erosion occurred, simply because of the fact that people were not slowing their boats down and controlling their wakes. There certainly were areas in the Thompson River where this was a problem, in Kamloops Lake, and indeed in both the Shuswaps – Little Shuswap and big Shuswap,” Gillis says.
“When water is high during floods, the water’s edge has now found new places and they’re not meant to withstand boat wakes. We’ve even had people standing up to their knees in water filling sandbags and suddenly being swamped by the waves from a passing boat.”
Gillis says the regional district will now be asking for authority at the UBCM this year to regulate boats, which he reiterates would only be during a local state of emergency.