WATCH ABOVE: The city of Victoria is cracking down on derelict boats and the liveaboards who call them home. Kylie Stanton reports.
Victoria’s Gorge waterway may soon be losing some of its more permanent vessels.
City council passed a bylaw last week rezoning the waterway near Banfield Park for recreational use only.
It means the 24 boats – some of which are derelict, and some of which are float homes – will have to be removed in the coming months.
“We started to take seriously the ecological concerns,” said councillor Lisa Helps.
There have been constant concerns of sewage leaking from a number derelict boats permanently anchored of the Selkirk Trestle.
It’s a common problem throughout British Columbia, as overlapping jurisdictions have left many waterways full of decaying boats.
WATCH: Victoria isn’t the first B.C. community to attempt to solve the problem of derelict boats this year
But Ben Isitt, a councillor who was opposed to the motion, suggested the city should have found a solution that would let people keep their boats out for up to a week at a time.
“To go from no regulation, to an outright ban on overnight moorage, doesn’t sit well with me.”
Comments