The Navigation Protection Act (NPA) will require builders to ensure their work complies with all relevant legislation if a work is being built in a listed waterway. The NPA will also enable builders of works in unlisted waterways to opt into the regime if the common law right of navigation is likely to be infringed. All other works built in unlisted waters would be subject to the common law.
The waterways listed were chosen utilizing data from the Canadian Hydrographic Service, Canada's nautical charts, Statistics Canada data on freight movement, and historical data from the Navigable Waters Protection Program's database that tracks all approved works to determine which waterways are most actively used. In addition:
- At least part of the waterway must be supporting heavy commercial and/or recreational navigation activity;
- Only the portions that are actively being used are listed as a waterway; and
- Waters are accessible by ports and marinas in proximity to heavily populated areas.
The waterway rankings were generated using four weighted indicators including:
- Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) Score: A score was generated for waterways that are charted by CHS of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, based on the levels of service of the waterway.
- Freight Score: A score was generated using freight movement data from Statistics Canada, based on the volume of freight over five years.
- Navigation Works Score: A score was generated using historical data from Transport Canada's Navigable Waters Protection Program (NWPP) database that tracks all approved works that would indicate navigation (i.e. marinas, docks, wharfs etc).
- Survey Score: A score was generated using survey results of NWPP personnel that tap into their local knowledge of important navigated waters.
After generating an initial list based on the quantitative analysis, it was then validated using a qualitative analysis that considered:
- an investigation of types of works represented by the Navigation Works Score (i.e. a large marina is more relevant than a single private dock);
- historical importance of each waterway;
- local knowledge of each waterway with a perspective of changing navigation patterns over time that were not necessarily reflected in the data;
- a waterway's importance as part of a network of listed waterways; and
- international borders and proximity to heavily populated areas.
The waterways are listed using names specified by the Atlas of Canada, the official naming database for geographic features in Canada. This database is provided by Natural Resources Canada and is supported by a Geographic Information Systems dataset.
There is a process in place for adding to the list over time. Government is able to, via regulation, add, modify or remove listed waterways and their borders as required.
October 2012
