A pleasure boat, anchored in the Gorge near the north side of Tillicum Bridge, has community members fuming and Saanich bylaw officers wringing their hands. The boat, bearing 26K 4230 as a possible identification and a secretive occupant, has been resting in a small bay for several weeks. It was tied briefly to a nearby dock before moving off to anchor. Now, the occupant apparently uses an inflatable dinghy to get back and forth.
“It appeared out of nowhere and nobody knows anything about it,” said Rob Wickson, chairman of the Gorge Tillicum Community Association. Wickson and others believe the boat’s occupant is keeping just ahead of a Saanich bylaw that forbids anyone tying up to the dock for more than 72 hours. The bylaw is similar to the one adopted last summer by the City of Victoria to deal with its growing problem of people living on derelict boats floating on the Gorge.
So far, none of the 25-odd boats and floating docks in the Victoria section of the Gorge have left, despite warnings.
Wickson said the Saanich boat by moving out to anchorage is obeying the letter of the bylaw and staying ahead of bylaw officers, but not public ire.
“Somebody is living on that boat so it’s obviously dumping stuff into the water,” said Wickson. “We swim there so we don’t want someone peeing and pooping in the water.”
“It’s a major swimming hole,” he said. “It’s time for Saanich [municipality] to play a leadership role and do something.”
Times Colonist attempts to raise the boat’s occupant failed.
Saanich Coun. Judy Brownoff said municipal officials have visited the boat. A warning notice was posted on it while it moored at the small dock. But they have failed to find the occupant.
Brownoff said municipal staff people are looking at the bylaw to see if the boat’s occupant is exploiting a loophole in the bylaw’s wording. A report is expected.
But she said it’s important to keep in mind a boat is not the same as a derelict car left parked on the side of the road. A car can be towed, impounded, confiscated and the owner found liable for costs.
But a boat is different. The owner must be contacted and consulted and permission obtained to move it. Brownoff noted even when dealing with abandoned, derelict boats washed up on Saanich park beaches the municipality had to track down the owner. The municipality had to get the owner to sign over the boat’s ownership.
Then it was up to the municipality to dispose of the derelict boat and pay for for the work.
Brownoff said the jurisdiction on the Gorge is confusing. The federal government is in charge of water surface. The province is in charge of the bottom and the immediate shore. Municipalities have responsibility only for the surrounding land.
Brownoff noted when Saanich stopped power boats using Prospect Lake it did so with a noise bylaw. That way it steered clear of federal and provincial jurisdictions.
“I know the Gorge Tillicum people want us to do something about this boat,” said Brownoff. “But we just can’t.”
John Roe, founder and a member of the group Veins of Life, said the Gorge is fast becoming the victim of government confusion. “Nobody is taking responsibility,” said Roe.
He said it’s time to have a single conservation authority take care of the watershed draining into the Gorge. “It needs a long term strategy for the whole watershed, looking after things like water quality, drainage, liveaboard boats, docks, habitat loss,” said Roe.
In the early 1990s his group undertook a cleanup of the polluted Gorge. Over the next decade the group hauled out tonnes of garbage and disposed of it at the landfill
By 2000 the Veins of Life could announce itself satisfied the Gorge had been returned as a place fit for swimming.
But now, Roe said the Gorge is showing signs of abuse again. Illegal docks have destroyed eel-grass habitat, people living on boats without permission are polluting it and garbage is finding its way back.
“You look at all the people who worked so hard and now, not to have a plan in place, it’s just frustrating,” said Roe. “It’s worse, it’s horrible actually.”
“But it [the Gorge] is salvageable,” he said. “I went swimming there the other day and it was so nice.
“The potential is so huge.”
