The 2025 Canada Safe Boating Week runs May 19-2, aiming to increase public compliance with safety measures and ultimately, to save lives. The Ontario Provincial Police will be looking for impaired driving, requirements for life-jackets and personal flotation devices (PFD's), liquor offences and Canada Shipping Act 2001 offences.
Boaters and paddlers are encouraged to raise their awareness around every aspect of safe travelling on waterways, says an OPP news release. Over and above wearing the right life-jacket or personal flotation device and boating sober and drug-free, ensure you and your vessel are prepared and safe for the season, take a boating course, be alert and cold water safe.
Please remember that a properly fitted life-jacket is not only designed to keep boaters and paddlers afloat, but also helps turn them onto their backs, enabling them to breathe if they are rendered unconscious. In the last five years 56 paddlers were among the 131 people who lost their lives in boating incidents on OPP-patrolled waterways. Between 2020-2024, 34 of those who died in marine incidents were canoeists, 17 were kayakers and five were using stand-up paddleboards.
The data makes a compelling case for the value in wearing a life-jacket. It is virtually impossible to drown if you are floating in the water with a properly fitted life-jacket. Even if you are rendered unconscious in a paddling/boating incident, a life-jacket will keep your head above water and keep you breathing. This is a particularly important message for paddlers/boaters who cannot swim, as a life-jacket is the one piece of equipment that you can count on to save your life.
Any vessel on the water (even paddleboats and canoes) require all the necessary safety equipment on board.
The standard equipment includes:
- 15-metre floating heaving line
- watertight flashlight
- whistle - *must be Pealess* (or some type of sound signalling device, i.e. horn, or portable air horn, etc.)
- bailing bucket
- a paddle or an oar
- life-jackets or personal flotation devices (PFD's) for every person on board (*self-inflating PFD's must be worn*)
- and depending on the size of the vessel and motor being used, it may require proper flares and a fire extinguisher
Horsepower and age restrictions:
- under 12yrs. may operate a boat with up to 10hp
- 12yrs. - 16yrs. may operate a boat with up to 40hp
- 16yrs. and older, there are no horsepower restrictions
- under 16 yrs. regardless of supervision shall NOT operate a Personal Water Craft (PWC): Sea-Doo, Jet Ski, Waverunner
The OPP Marine Program has a fleet of 134 vessels and almost 400 skilled marine officers committed to enforcing boating laws and the safety of Ontario boaters on more than 110,000 square kilometres (95 per cent) of Ontario's lakes and rivers.
Should you observe a suspected impaired driver, please dial 911 or contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122.