A few ramshackle boats mooring in the Gorge continue to be a thorn in the side of the City of Victoria.
Four boats, a couple surrounded by rickety wharfs, continue to anchor in defiance of a court order.
“They’ve all been given letters asking that they depart the area on two occasions. They are aware there is a court order barring them from mooring full-time in the harbour,” Barrie Cockle, city manager of bylaw services, said Wednesday.
“That said, we’re in the process of working toward an enforcement order to remove the boats should they choose not to voluntarily comply.”
Cockle said city staff have made persistent efforts to get the boats to move with no luck.
“We have to move forward reasonably — no different than if somebody took up an encampment in a park and we got a court order and injunction. Then we’d have to go back and get the enforcement order,” he said.
Last March, the B.C. Supreme Court gave the City of Victoria permission to evict derelict vessels from the Gorge by the end of May last year.
The ruling granted the city the authority to regulate the waterway, which was previously under federal jurisdiction. That allowed the city to enforce a bylaw passed in 2016 that limited long-term mooring to 48 hours, and a maximum of 72 hours in a 30-day period.
A court order would authorize the city to remove the boats and impound them if the owners continue to ignore the injunction.
“We would always prefer voluntary compliance. That is always our goal. We’ve been communicating with them monthly, at least to make sure they still know we’re coming,” said Cockle, adding housing outreach workers have also been trying to work with the holdouts to arrange alternative accommodation.
“But so far, they either haven’t fit the criteria or they don’t necessarily want to go to something other than what they are living in right now.”
Still, Cockle said, progress has been made. He noted that two years ago, there were 24 boats in the area. “We’ve had a lot of voluntary compliance. Some didn’t make it through the winter [and] are being taken away under the derelict boat program. These particular ones don’t fall under that category because they are occupied,” he said.
Victoria has been working for years to address the problem of derelict and illegally moored boats near the Selkirk Trestle.
In the summer of 2014, city councillors adopted a bylaw to rezone the waterway for recreational use only.
The bylaw specified the waterway was intended to be used primarily as a park and that liveaboards, float homes and overnight anchorage and moorage are not allowed. The city obtained a licence of occupation over the waterway from the province so the bylaw could be enforced.
Concerns about the boats include potential environmental impact, particularly on sensitive eel-grass habitat.
Residents living along the Gorge have also complained about noise, garbage and dumping of sewage by boat occupants.
