Staff Report: Mooring Buoys Report Follow-Up – Regulation and Enforcement in Esquimalt Harbour
Report explaining the jurisdictional limitations of the Town to regulate mooring buoys in the federal harbour.
TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE REPORT
TO: Committee of the Whole DATE: May 3, 2014 FROM: James Davison MCIP RPP, Planner MEETING DATE: May 12, 2015
MOORING BUOYS REPORT FOLLOW-UP - REGULATION AND ENFORCEMENT IN ESQUIMALT HARBOUR
RECOMMENDATION
THAT Committee receive this report for information.
CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S COMMENTS
I concur with the recommendation.
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT SERVICES’ COMMENTS
I concur with the recommendation.
PURPOSE OF REPORT
To present Committee with a response to a follow-up request for information from Council on the Town’s regulation and enforcement ability in Esquimalt Harbour.
BACKGROUND
Esquimalt Harbour is one of the six harbours defined by the Six Harbours Agreement of 1924, which places a large portion of Esquimalt Harbour (the area of which is attached to the report) under federal control. The harbour was under the control of Transport Canada until 2005, at which point it was turned over to CFB Esquimalt.
ISSUES AND ANALYSIS
Harbour Jurisdiction
Staff’s informed understanding is that the federal harbour falls under the principal of inter-jurisdictional immunity. That is, the Six Harbours Agreement permits the federal use of the property for the purposes of national defense, and any provincial, municipal or general federal regulation which would otherwise regulate uses and structures within the harbour have no force of law therein.
Any regulation which exists over the harbour can be voluntarily observed by CFB Esquimalt, and we have seen this with the Town’s Letter of Understanding permitting the Town of View Royal to regulate and enforce its Development Permit and Private Dock Development guidelines within the harbour.
Burden of Regulation and Enforcement
As per above, the town’s ability to regulate or enforce in the federal portion of Esquimalt Harbour is realistically limited to that which is voluntarily permitted by CFB Esquimalt. There have been legal challenges to federal spheres of authority in the past, but these are cost-prohibitive for a municipality such as the Town.
CFB Esquimalt currently has an expensive, hazardous and time-consuming task of removing abandoned vessels and derelict structures from the harbour, regulating docks, buoys and other foreshore structures, and enforcing nuisance live-aboard vessels (among other things). It is evident that CFB Esquimalt finds the regulation, enforcement and maintenance of the recreational portion of the federal harbour to be a significant burden. If it were not for the federal mandate, there is little doubt that CFB Esquimalt would prefer to offload some of the responsibility of stewarding the largely recreational portions of the harbour.
It would be prohibitive, currently, for the Town to take on even one of the labour-intensive tasks in regulating and enforcing in the harbour. Staff recommends that regulation in the harbour should be undertaken voluntarily with CFB Esquimalt’s cooperation in the same process as the Private Dock Development Guidelines process; that is to say, with communication, consultation with the public, and good-faith agreements. The Town currently gets exceptional service and value from CFB Esquimalt’s stewardship in the harbour. Any drawback to municipal autonomy is outweighed by the immense operational considerations and costs in the harbour. CFB Esquimalt has shown that they are open to listening to the Town as a neighbour and stakeholder in the harbour, and it is in the Town’s best interest to continue this relationship with the current jurisdictional structures in place.
RECOMMENDATION
THAT Committee receive this report for information.
SUBMITTED BY
James Davison MCIP RPP, Planner
REVIEWED BY
Lindsay Chase, MCIP RPP, Director of Development Services
Attachments
- Map of Federal Jurisdiction in Esquimalt Harbour (CFB Esquimalt Controlled Access Zone)
Document Images
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