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Minister Announces Funding For Boating A

Minister Announces Funding For Boating App and Crime Prevention Strategy

Mar 14, 2019 | 12:07 PM

One of the the top cabinet minsters in the Trudeau government is in the Okanagan today making announcements.

Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Ralph Goodale is at the Okanagan Indian Band meeting hall this hour to make what is called “a national  crime prevention strategy announcement.”

Goodale was in Kelowna earlier today, announcing $595,000 to a Kelowna company (LRC Consulting Solutions) to create a new mobile app that small boat captains can use to file a sailing plan, providing essential information for search and rescue personnel to search for an overdue vessel.

“This SARNIF grant will help ensure that important work is completed to enhance and support marine safety for all Canadian boaters. Creating and submitting a sailing plan, will never have been easier or more efficient,” said Goodale, an MP from Regina.

Nelson Jatel, CEO of Limnology Research, says his company and its partners have been assessing the opportunity to develop the app the last three years.

“We were surprised that no mobile app existed to file a daily sailing or float plan and realized an opportunity to harness new technology to improve Canadian boating safety,”  says Jatel.

Kelowna-Lake Country MP Stephen Fuhr says as a pilot, he understands the safety requirements of filing a flight plan and filing a sailing plan should be no different.

“Having the Sailing PlanTM app being developed in Kelowna by one of the leading innovators in our high-tech community will make it easier for commercial boaters to meet their small vessel regulatory  aspects and provide recreational boaters with a great new, easy to use, app to increase boater safety for all Canadians.”

Statistics from The Lifesaving Society show that about one-third of all water-related deaths in Canada occur while boating, with the majority caused by capsizing, collision or falling overboard.

“The development of the Sailing PlanTM application will provide an intuitive, usable and robust sailing plan solution for all Canadian boaters,” says the the project’s technical lead, Dr. Jon Corbett. “The new app will make the completion and submission of sailing plans easier and faster for boat captains and in turn make the large quantity of data more accessible and actionable by search and rescue staff.”