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I would like to start by recognizing the efforts of this years' Symposium Committee, co-chaired by Cynthia Hodgson and Rick Cassels. This year's Symposium, while not attended by as many people as in past years, was an exceptional one. It followed many years of persistence to achieve the goal of having a Symposium in the real North so that we could experience and discuss the nature of boating related to both daily living and recreation in areas that most of us only hear about and even then not that often.
The stories we heard from those who live and work in the North served to bring home the realities that are faced by those who live on or near the water's edge and who spend time on the water. That means almost everyone.
In Canada you cannot claim to serve those who live from Sea to Sea to Sea unless you are actually present in the North and don't just drop in for a visit from time to time, if at all. This is a challenge that we face and our 2016 Symposium in Yellowknife, NWT, served to highlight that.
Here are a few comments from those who attended the Symposium:
- Good cross section of attendees
- I have attended numerous Symposiums. My expectations were high to start with - well done
- It was a long hard effort to make this happen but well worth it
- Lots of good information
- Thank you for all the hard work to bring us here!
- The quality and quantity of the presentations was outstanding
- Great location, would have hoped for more attendance for networking.
- Great quality of participants and presentations
- Stunning opening reception.
- Met great people and enjoyed the exposure to the North.
A real disappointment, and one that was expressed by many, was the inability of staff from Transport Canada's Office of Boating Safety to attend. Senior bureaucrats, supported by politicians, must find a way for field staff to attend conferences like this where those who they want and need to partner with are present. If the U.S. Coast Guard's Office of Boating Safety can find the resources to send one of their senior officers, then surely we can do the same.
In closing, I offer my sincere thanks and congratulations to all those who made this year's Symposium possible. My special thanks go to Michelle Handley, Manager, NWT Conference Bureau and Business Relations and the NWT Ministry of Industry and Tourism who provided so much support. Without them this Symposium would never have taken place.
Keep the flame burning bright,
John Gullick
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Time to get Your Tickets for the Canadian Safe Boating Awards Gala on January 22!
 You are warmly invited to join us at the CASBA Awards gala at the Sheraton Centre Toronto on January 22. It will be an evening spent with friends; boating safety partners gathered to celebrate the accomplishments of marine professionals, volunteers and boating enthusiasts from across Canada.
We look forward to seeing you there! For more information on the CASBA's or the gala event email
[email protected]
or call Karen Harrington at 705 329-6125.
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Canadian Safe Boating Campaign: a Great Summer
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The CSBC appreciates the financial support of Transport Canada and the support of Pattison Outdoor and many other partners in making this campaign possible.
The CSBC kicked off year one of a new 3-year Transport Canada contribution agreement with activity on a number of fronts:
Cold Water Awareness Program
The first ever Cold Water Cold Water Awareness Campaign was launched mid April with a media release, ads and articles. This is the introduction of an annual cold water awareness campaign to round out the CSBC's season-long boating safety features. Cold Water Awareness will be significantly ramped up in years 2 and 3 of the campaign.
Safe Boating Awareness Week (SBAW)
Safe Boating Awareness Week (SBAW) ran from May 21 -27, 2016 across Canada and the United States. The goal was to provide great reminders at the beginning of boating season of the CSBC's 5 Key Messages to enhance boating safety.
They are:
- Wear a lifejacket
- Don't drink and boat
- Take a boating course
- Be prepared - both you and your vessel
- Understand the risks of cold water immersion.
Kick-off events for SBAW were held in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto and Halifax. These events are primarily meant for media. Each event was well represented by CSBC partner organizations, who were on hand to present their organizations' messages about boating safety to the media. Proclamations officially designating May 21 - 27 as Safe Boating Awareness Week were read in Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg.
Independent of the launches,
media engagement was very strong throughout the week, with many CSBC partners quoted and involved with media interviews from coast to coast. Additionally,
Canadian Tire promoted the week in their national flyer with a print run of 11 million copies circulated nationwide.
Media uptake of the Safe Boating Awareness Week campaign messaging once again showed excellent growth, exceeding 2015 by 22% and 2014 by 48%. See below for a 5 year profile.
SBAW Campaign Media Impressions 5 Year Growth
SBAW 2016 Research
Research involving a sample size of 1,000 Canadian adults was conducted from May 31 through June 6 to...
- Measure and track awareness of safe boating messages communicated by the CSBC's Safe Boating Awareness Week annual boating safety campaign, and
- Measure and track boating safety attitudes and behaviours among Canadian boaters, and how they have been affected by awareness of the SBAW campaign messages
Summary findings indicated:
- 42% of Canadian adults participate in recreational boating activities, with fishing, pleasure powerboating, canoeing and kayaking continuing to be the most popular. Boating participation overall (especially among men) has dropped slightly since 2015, but remains higher than 2013-2014 tracking results.
- Canadians' awareness of safe boating messages in 2016 was maintained at the high level achieved in 2015 vs. prior years, with 71% of boaters being aware of CSBC safe boating messages in May 2016 and almost one quarter (23%) of boaters "highly aware" of 5 or more CSBC messages.
- There was equally high awareness for high priority "Don't Drink & Boat" and "Wear Your Lifejacket" messages, each reaching half of boaters surveyed. Message awareness for "Help us catch impaired boaters, call 911" was higher in 2016, especially among older boat drivers, females and those residing in Atlantic & Ontario regions.
Ready, Set Wear It
There were 11 Ready Set Wear It events across Canada: Calgary, Edmonton, Nanaimo, The Yacht Club of British Columbia, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Moncton, Barrie, Toronto, Regina and Saskatoon.
Other participating countries included the United States, Japan, Poland, South Korea and Brazil and the total number of participants reached
6,784.
Hooked on Lifejackets
The Hooked on Lifejackets campaign ran from July 2 - 10, which was a time strategically aligned with National Fishing Week across Canada. In addition to major national media releases on the importance of wearing a lifejacket, the CSBC secured partnerships with almost every provincial and territorial angling and hunting federation to issue joint media releases.
In addition to the traditional media release partnerships, some of the above organizations also carried information on their social media platforms. Part of the promotion also included 30 second videos in both French and English, featuring highly recognizable television fishing personalities. These were provided to the partner organizations for posting to their websites or on their social media platform.
Media reach for the 2016 Hooked on Lifejackets campaign eclipsed the 6 million mark, which constitutes a 17.6% increase over 2015.
Arrangements have been put in place for the Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick angling and hunting federations to once again carry one of the two ads below in their 2017 publications, promoting lifejacket wear for those who love to fish.
The province of Ontario is also planning to run the banner ad below in the 2017 Chinese-language version of the Ontario Fishing Regulations Guide.
Operation Dry Water
Operation Dry Water took place over the August long weekend. The CSBC issued a joint media release accompanied by an article on the dangers of drinking and boating. Advertisements relating to the Help Catch an Impaired Boater - Dial 911 initiative were run in both Canadian Yachting and Pacific Yachting magazines.
Invitations to enforcement bodies across Canada were sent out through the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. 33 marine police agencies and branches took part in the 2016 campaign. Activities included engaging their local media with interviews and news releases. Enforcement agencies performed multiple vessel checks for impaired boaters and educating them on the dangers and penalities associated with drinking and boating.
Post event responses have been positive, with very few charges laid for impaired boating over many visits. Vessel visits also highlighted infractions against the Canada Shipping Act related to safety equipment violations. Operation Dry Water media clippings eclipsed 93 million over radio, television, the internet and print media. This constitutes a 22.0% increase over 2015.
Billboard Campaign
This year's billboard campaign was a continuation of the "Help Us Catch Impaired Boaters - If you see one, call 911"; a campaign that continues to be eagerly embraced by police agencies with marine enforcement responsibilities and their related 911 agencies across Canada.
Pattison Outdoor continued the placement of posters in strategic street level and mall locations across Canada as an added in-kind value to the project.
Total value (delivered to date): $311,413.90 Net
Estimated Total Impressions (delivered to date): 95,593,841
Stretching the Season
Due to the unusually warm summer season, the Stretching the Season Campaign was conducted over the first week in October. Its purpose was to educate boaters on the additional precautions boaters should take when they boat late into the season.
The CSBC put out a national media release with an article highlighting the do's and don'ts for those who boat late in the season. Both Canadian Yachting and Pacific Yachting carried the following ad in their fall issues of the magazine.
Once again in 2016, the campaign received great support from almost all the provincial angling and hunting federations by putting out joint media releases and newsletters to their membership. A total of 5.6 million impressions was recorded across television, the Internet, radio and print media.
Social Media
Social media channels have been optimized to allow for easy and seamless utilization in the future. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube have all been branded with CSBC Boating Tips, and preparation for future posts has been initiated. With a larger social media budget in the coming years, more emphasis will be placed on using these platforms to engage with followers more easily, ramp up each safe boating campaign and direct users to learn more about boating safety on the CSBC's Campaign web pages. Moving forward, there will be a continuation of hashtag use from this past season, therefore allowing for 'trending' to continue and followers to stay engaged with the campaign as it moves through each year.
Content and creative will continue to be developed and added to an information database over the winter months for each of the five campaigns (Cold Water, Safe Boating Awareness Week, Hooked on Lifejackets, Operation Dry Water and Stretching the Season), which will lend nicely to scheduled postings across all social media sites. The goal still remains to increase viewership and engagement on all CSBC social media properties, increase visitors to the CSBC.ca campaign pages, and, as a result, increase awareness of and behaviours towards boating safety and the CSBC's messages.
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CSBC Launches Safety First Marine
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In late July 2016 the CSBC received notification from the National Search and Rescue Secretariat (NSS) that our proposal for a New Initiatives Fund project - Safety First Marine - was approved. Safety First Marineis an innovative, interactive, bilingual program designed to educate Canadian retail marine sales staff about boating safety equipment and encourage them to leverage their direct contact with boaters to proactively share that information.
RVCC's (Recreational Vessel Courtesy Checks) performed by the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary and the Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons across Canada are discovering that, on average, 40 % of the vessels checked are not carrying aboard all the required safety equipment...equipment designed to enable a boater to help themselves, provide ways to alert and assist SAR responders if assistance is required and keep the boater and their passengers alive until help arrives.
The goal of Safety First Marine is to encourage safer boating and save lives through a "train the trainer" approach. By providing comprehensive safety knowledge and training to marine salespeople through an online format, they in turn can provide appropriate safety equipment and boating safety knowledge to their customers, the boating public.
Safety First Marine will be delivered free, via the internet in a standalone, highly interactive educational web site linkable from the CSBC site. A series of 20 modules will be created, each with built-in self-assessment. The modules will cover a variety of subjects including required safety equipment, how to use it, store it, inspect it and when to replace it. In addition to safety equipment, Safety First Marine will also have educational modules on other important safety issues including Float Plans, pre-departure checks, marine radio, licencing, the Pleasure Craft Operator program, etc. At the successful completion of the program, the marine salesperson can download a personalized certificate of completion.
Much of the primary production has been completed and a significant amount of footage previously recorded in a variety of CSBC programs is being repurposed for this project. Launch is expected in the spring of 2017.
Breaking News: Safety First Marine has an early commitment to be offered by Canadian Tire to their almost 500 stores to train staff as soon as it is available. This is an extremely valuable first step for Safety First Marine, and will result in an initial broad reach for the program.
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CSBC Partners with Lifesaving Society on ABC (A Boating Course for New Boaters)
The CSBC will be an active and visible partner with the Lifesaving Society in a new initiative with the working title,ABC(A Boating Course for New Boaters). This boating education program is designed to educate newer boaters about the basics of how be safer and more responsible boaters. The long-term goal is to reduce marine SAR incidents, and teach these new boaters how call for help if it is needed and how to survive while waiting.
The program is national, focusing specifically on the two highest at-risk vessel categories: human-powered vessels and small open motor boats. There will be 4 individual programs, one for each vessel type: small outboard boats, canoes, kayaks and SUP (Stand up Paddle Boards), In each program, ABC will focus content directly on the particular vessel type.
Although suitable for all boaters, ABC is targeted primarily to the tens of thousands of new boaters who take to Canada's waterways every year, many without any knowledge or experience. Another unique feature of ABC is that it will also be produced with new Canadians in mind. Many new Canadians are enjoying Canada's waterways, but unfortunately don't always have the education and knowledge to be safe and receive the maximum enjoyment from their new recreational boating activity. The initial launch of ABC will include programs available in 6 languages; English, French, Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi and Tagalog.
ABC programs will be delivered on-line, streamable and linkable from a variety of partner web sites including Canadian Safe Boating Council, PaddleSmart, AdventureSmart.ca and SmartBoater.ca. In addition to online access, the programs will be available on cable network broadcast and direct distribution. Promotion of ABC will come through a comprehensive variety of marketing activities including a major PR Media launch, print ads, articles, out of home advertising and through the marine industry, both at the manufacturer and retail level.
The program will be launched in the spring of 2017, just at the start of the new boating season.
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U.S. National Recreational Boating Safety Program 2017 - 2021 Strategic Plan
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U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Paul Thomas signed the National Recreational Boating Safety Strategic Plan on October 21, 2016 in Arlington, VA.
The Plan will soon be available at www.USCGBoating.org.
This Plan is the third in a series of 5-year strategic plans which were developed under the leadership of the USCG and the National Boating Safety Advisory Council, and implemented by a broad coalition of recreational boating leaders including private citizens, national non-profit public service organizations and the boating industry.
The 2017-2021 Plan includes three major priorities:
- Cultivate a boating public that is better prepared to engage in safer boating behaviours
- Make better informed policy decisions by building and using highly-integrated systems to gather and evaluate data from many sources
- Nurture collaborative efforts among the stakeholders that benefit the boating public within the recreational boating safety community.
The following key challenges and opportunities are identified for the 2017-2021 period:
- Behaviours: Gaps in safer boating behaviours and practises exist
- Technologies: new and emerging technologies in recreational boating safety are outpacing assimilation into the boating community
- Trends: changes in recreational boating preferences represent a cultural shift
- Management: Recreational Boating Safety program management activities need clear direction for the next wave of effective implementation:
a. some policy and regulatory interventions and requirements are outdated
b. current data collection efforts do not sufficiently address opportunities for efficient decision-making and allocation of limited resources that could result from a more comprehensive data collection plan
c. non-governmental organization (NGO) programs that receive grants should ensure their focus is on measurable goals (evidence-based model approach).
The Plan lays out three performance initiatives to address these challenges and opportunities, with specific courses of action, milestones, time frames and performance measures. For more details,
click here.
Through its participation on the U.S. National Safe Boating Council (NSBC) Board of Directors and its close working relationship with the NSBC, the CSBC has had the opportunity to view the various U.S. Boating Safety Strategic Plans and their implementation up close over several years. We have found them inspirational. There are millions of recreational boaters both in the U.S. and Canada, and the challenges of helping them stay safe are huge. The U.S. approach of developing a comprehensive national Strategic Plan to advance boating safety, with all major partners and stakeholders playing a role in implementing it within their own jurisdiction, and clear performance indicators to measure progress, is a great way to collaborate in addressing these challenges. The CSBC would love to see something similar in Canada. We are doing our part as a leading boating safety organization: we are collaborative, sharing research, bringing stakeholders together to promote common safety messages, working with multiple partners in boating safety projects and campaigns, and fostering dialogue and learning through our symposiums, Smartboater.ca and other web resources, our newsletters and other outreach. In our former co-chairing and current membership of the National Recreational Boating Advisory Council (NRBAC), we continue to advocate to Transport Canada for a collaborative and funded process to develop a made-in-Canada Boating Safety Strategic Plan.
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Search and Rescue in New Zealand
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The New Zealand Search and Rescue Council has published its Annual Report 2015-2016. Did you know:
- New Zealand has one of the highest rates of volunteer SAR involvement in the world? Volunteers make up 95% of the people who provide operational SAR response
- Of the 12,790 people directly involved in the New Zealand SAR sector (operational and support roles), 7,477 people (59%) were in the marine sector
- 64% of recreational boats that required SAR support were 5m or less in length
- Of the approximate NZ $23.290M in Government investment in the SAR sector, NZ $5.663M was sourced from the fuel excise duties paid by recreational boat users
- New Zealand is a small country, but the SSR (Search and Rescue Region) for which it is responsible is huge. It covers an area roughly equal to the combined landmass of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico .
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Do you think the work the CSBC is doing across Canada to make boating safer for everyone is important? Would you like to be part of the network of boating safety enthusiasts across Canada, and internationally? Then why not support our work by becoming a CSBC Member?
We receive no ongoing government funding for the work that we do in bringing the boating community together, putting on the Symposium and the CASBAs, and developing specific boating safety project proposals for funding. As a totally volunteer organization, the
CSBC needs your help to continue our programming and services.
Visit our website to learn more about our programs and how to become a CSBC member. Both organizational and individual memberships are available. If you are already a member, now is the time to
renew your membership.
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The International Boating and Water Safety Summit will be held in St. Petersburg, Florida from April 23 - 26, 2017.
Click here for details.
The Marine 17: Boating for the Future conference will be held in Sydney, Australia from 30 July - 1 August, 2017. To learn more, click here.
Save the date: the next CSBC Symposium will be held in Quebec City from September 17 - 19, 2007.
The International Life Saving Federation's World Conference on Drowning Prevention (WCDP) will be held in Vancouver, B.C. from October 17 - 19, 2017. This conference is a flagship educational event on the calendar of the International Life Saving Federation (ILS). It is a bi-annual opportunity to bring together the world's foremost experts, research, systems and information on drowning prevention, rescue, lifesaving and water safety. Click here t
o learn more.
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