It’s Time to Zap the Speed Freaks at Shawnigan

by Max Low

Victoria Daily Times

August 8, 1977

Dale Carnegie mightn’t be too happy with the idea, but I’m thinking of writing a book and calling it How to Lose Friends and Influence People.

My column on a brief trip to England caused enough controversy, but now I’m going to stick my neck out and make a few enemies of friends and neighbors by saying I favor a powerboat ban on Shawnigan Lake.

The once-tranquil little piece of water 20 miles from Victoria has long been a haven for city folk eager to escape that one plague of the metropolis: noise. They came to fish quietly, to glide silently by in canoes, or to relax in the sun.

But no longer is there peace at Shawnigan. City folk now flock to the lake and bring their noise with them. On every summer weekend—and often on weekdays too—the speed freaks are out in force, towing skiers in all directions from dawn until well into darkness, or causing havoc by roaring up and down the length of the waterway for kicks.

The speed merchants have taken over. You risk your life going too far from shore in a canoe; sailboats haven’t a hope in hell of being seen; a swimmer has even less chance of avoiding them.

And it isn’t the residents. Most are good skiers and know boats and how to treat them. But with restrictions being placed on lakes nearer Victoria, more and more weekenders are hauling their boats over the Malahat. They come and go, and don’t really have to respect what they find.

Ultimately, you pay the price for being a quiet person. Many are forced away from the place they love on weekends to find a little peace. Some won’t even let their children swim in the lake because of the danger.

The problem has been getting worse each year, but this warm spell has highlighted it.

“Last week alone I had 21 persons complaining about boats on the lake,” one resident told me. Many complain too to the RCMP, who patrol the lake regularly during the summer and check up on troublemakers. The other night, the RCMP boat stopped at our float and the driver said he was investigating a report that people were doing some night skiing, which is illegal. And that was after 11 p.m.!

Stephenson, a keen sailor, said ideally he favors an eventual ban on motorboats. “But at this point, I believe Shawnigan has to be a multi-purpose lake,” he added. “The problem of noise pollution can be boiled down to about six large boats—and they are a damned nuisance!”

Stephenson favors keeping the lake open to all kinds of boats for the time being, but limiting the number of places where weekenders can put their boats in. He goes along with recommendations of a special planning committee for the area, which suggests that powerboats be phased out gradually on Shawnigan Lake over the next 10 years.

Two public meetings will be held soon—on the Saturday before the Labor Day weekend and the Saturday after—at the Shawnigan Community Hall to discuss these and other recommendations.

After these meetings, billed as “open houses on the community plan,” the committee will prepare a new plan for the area. It’s expected to be ready by December.

“Our proposal is that motorboats be phased out over 10 years down to a 5 mph limit, ideally with quiet electric motors being allowed so that elderly people can still get around the lake,” said Howard Dixon, chairman of the advisory planning commission for Shawnigan Lake.

Even that isn’t good enough for Joan Wachtin, who has drawn up a petition to have motorboats banned now. Citing the danger and the detrimental effect on drinking water by petroleum-powered boats (most people draw their drinking water straight from the lake), Joan has more than 100 signatures already on her petition, which she is sending to Environment Minister Jim Nielsen.

While there is still some doubt clouding the question of water pollution, there appears to be little to argue with on the danger score, as last weekend’s boating accident on Elk Lake showed. Two canoes were swamped by a boat towing a skier, and a man almost drowned.

And then there’s the noise, said Dixon, who admits the recommendations are aimed at getting fast boats and skiers off the lake. Where will they go?

“They can ski just as easily in the ocean,” he said.

But Stephenson didn’t agree. “Debris and floating deadheads make it dangerous to ski in the sea. And do we have a right to deprive these people of the use of the lake?” he asked.

Dixon believes they do. He feels, in fact, that’s what most of the people want.

“It used to be that more people wanted skiing than didn’t,” he explained. “But we sense that the mood of the people is changing.”

There is no easy answer, but Dixon suggests we look to the rest of Canada for a lead. To places like Quebec, where he said they’ve banned motorboats on all lakes north of Montreal, and where even the use of chainsaws is limited to certain hours on lakeside lots.

Being basically a quiet person—one who would rather push a hand mower over an acre than put up with the clatter of a motor—I’m with Dixon when he says:

“Surely, it’s a more fundamental right to have the peaceful use of the lake than it is to be bombarded.”