Push is on to make life-jackets mandatory for boaters age 12 and younger

With boating season upon us, there may be a new law to follow when it comes to life-jackets.

It's called 'Joshua's Law,' in memory of a boy who died in a boating accident in 2018. It recently passed a second reading in the legislature.

“It’s such an important piece of legislation. It’s just really common sense,” said Carleton MPP Goldie Ghamari.

“When I first heard about this and when I first heard it’s not mandatory for children 12 and under to wear life-jackets, I was shocked because I thought it was the law.”

OPP Const. Robert Lewis current laws don’t require anyone to wear a life-jacket.

"But there must be an approved life-jacket for each individual in the vessel and be appropriately sized," Lewis said.

Some parents we spoke with were shocked to hear that and hope the new law is passed.

“Not all children can swim as good in deep water as they can near a beach or shallow water so I already think that should have been something that was passed a long time ago. Yeah,” one person said.

“Life-jackets should definitely be mandatory for ages up to 12 if not older actually because some children still struggle even after 16 and we need to keep our children protected,” said another.

When worn correctly, police said life-jackets can save lives. Lewis said there were 245 deaths related to boating fatalities from 2013 to 2022 and six per cent of those were children under the age of 19 who were not wearing a life-jacket.

"People that are wearing their life-jackets are the ones to survive any of these collisions or capsizes with the exception of maybe hypothermia,” he said.

“The majority of people survive when they have their life-jackets on."

Ghamari said she hopes her bill will be passed by June. Otherwise it will have to wait until after the summer break.

The OPP said so far this year, six people have died in boating incidents.