Just when we thought we could look forward to a worry-free summer on the Bay of Quinte, Ottawa has decided to drop a new anchor on our wallets.

As of December 31, 2025, Transport Canada has quietly overhauled the Pleasure Craft Licence (PCL) program, effectively ending the era of the “lifetime” boat licence. If you own a vessel with a motor of 10 horsepower or more, the days of a one-and-done registration are over.

For the first time, Canadian boaters are being hit with a $24 fee to issue, renew, transfer, or replace a pleasure craft licence.

While twenty-four bucks might not break the bank for everyone, it is the principle that stings. For decades, licensing your boat was a free, administrative formality—a “thank you” for registering your vessel for safety purposes. Now, it looks suspiciously like another revenue stream flowing directly from our docks to the federal coffers.

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The “Lifetime” Licence Myth

Perhaps the most frustrating part of this rollout is the retroactive nature of the changes. If you are sitting on a “lifetime” licence issued years ago, believing you were grandfathered in, think again.

Transport Canada has set a strict schedule to phase out these older licences. For example, if your licence was issued before 1985, it expires in 2026. This forces responsible boat owners, who followed the rules years ago, to jump back through the bureaucratic hoops and pay the new toll.

Sailors, You Are Next

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The net is being cast wider, too. Our sailing community on the Trent-Severn and out in the open Bay isn’t safe from the regulator’s reach. Starting December 31, 2027, wind-powered pleasure craft over six metres in length will also require a licence.

This is a massive shift for sailing purists who have traditionally operated outside of these specific motor-vessel regulations.

Red Tape on the Rideau

To add insult to injury, the government has tightened the leash on reporting. You now have a mere 30 days to update your information if you move or change your name, slashed from the previous 90-day window.

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They claim this is about “safety,” “accountability,” and managing abandoned vessels. But let’s be honest: does charging a fee and forcing paperwork every five years actually make the water safer? Or does it just create a larger pile of paper in Ottawa and a lighter wallet in Belleville?

For a region that thrives on waterborne tourism and recreation, adding friction to boat ownership is a wet blanket we didn’t ask for. We should be encouraging people to explore the waterways, not nickeling-and-diming them for the privilege.

Is this truly about cleaning up our waterways, or is it just another tax on the Canadian summer?

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It is a scenario that would make any law-abiding Canadian’s blood boil. Police officers do the heavy lifting. They conduct thorough investigations. They lay charges. Then they watch the accused walk free because the courts simply ran out of time.

According to a recent and alarming media release by the Belleville Police Service (BPS), this is the new reality in Hastings County. The service is raising the red flag on a growing backlog of Provincial Offences Act (POA) cases that are hitting the 15-month limit set by provincial guidelines. The result is that charges are being unceremoniously withdrawn. This is not happening because the evidence is weak. It is happening because the system is too slow.

The frustration on the ground is palpable. In a Facebook comment below the announcement, local resident Beverly Carleton summed up the public sentiment perfectly.

She is not wrong. When the judicial system effectively tells officers “thanks for the hard work but we are too busy to finish the job” it sends a demoralizing message to law enforcement. It sends an even more dangerous message to offenders.

The “Zombie Ticket” Factor

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But why is the system so clogged? The BPS release cites a lack of judicial availability and notes there are only 85 judicial sitting days per year in the county. However, savvy observers are pointing to a self-inflicted wound by municipal governments. The “ghost” of the Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras.

Commentator Christopher Robson noted that this is not just a local issue. He pointed out that while the Province of Ontario has already removed these controversial cameras, the administrative damage is done.

Robson calls it a “speed-camera revenue scheme” and he makes a compelling point. Even though the cameras may be gone, the thousands of automated tickets they generated are still moving through the python of the judicial system. Every contested speed camera ticket for a minor infraction takes up precious docket time. That is time that could be used for more serious offenses.

The Bottom Line

We are witnessing a clash between revenue generation and law and order. By prioritizing automated ticketing systems that acted as municipal cash cows, local governments may have inadvertently paralyzed the very courts needed to keep our streets safe from genuine threats.

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We now have a situation where real police work is being thrown in the trash to make room for a backlog of automated fines. When bureaucracy trumps justice, the public loses.

What do you think? Should we throw out all remaining speed camera tickets to clear the courts for real crimes?

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The City of Belleville Municipal Government confirmed what many Ontario drivers have been waiting for. In a recent Facebook notice, the city stated its Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) program will be discontinued this Friday, November 14th. This is not a local policy shift but a forced move by the provincial government, which has passed legislation stripping municipalities of the authority to run these controversial speed cameras.

Premier Doug Ford’s government, through the omnibus Bill 56—the Building a More Competitive Economy Act—has delivered on its promise to eliminate what it repeatedly labelled a municipal “cash grab.” These cameras, often issuing tickets for being just a few kilometers over the limit, felt less like a safety measure and more like an automated revenue funnel aimed at the wallets of hardworking Canadians. Finally, a government is listening to the common-sense complaint that excessive fines weeks after the fact do little to change immediate driving behaviour.

A Safety Gap or Smart Engineering?

However, the speed of this move is raising serious red flags. Many municipalities, including those like Ottawa and Mississauga which showed data confirming the cameras did reduce high-end speeding in school zones, are being forced to rip out their enforcement tools overnight. The province has promised a new fund to help cities implement “alternative traffic-calming measures”—think speed bumps, roundabouts, and raised crosswalks.

These physical solutions are undeniably superior. They proactively engineer safer streets rather than reactively punishing drivers. This shift aligns perfectly with a modern, entrepreneurial approach that values innovative solutions over bureaucratic enforcement.

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But here is the critical flaw in the provincial plan: the ban takes effect on November 14th, but the funding and the installation of these physical infrastructure solutions will not be ready for months. This sudden, forced decommissioning creates an immediate and dangerous safety gap in zones specifically designated to protect our most vulnerable citizens—school children and seniors.

It feels like political expediency has once again trumped prudent policy. The Ford government successfully delivers a popular, populist win by lowering costs on drivers, but they fast-tracked the bill so aggressively that they failed to implement the necessary safety nets. The removal of the cameras, without the new infrastructure in place, suggests the primary goal was not seamless safety but rather the political theatre of ‘protecting taxpayers’ at all costs. This move undermines local municipal autonomy and risks sacrificing proven, localized safety measures for a rushed, top-down legislative victory.

Is the promise of future, superior infrastructure worth the risk to our communities in the interim, or has the provincial government traded long-term safety for a short-term political headline?

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