// Our History
Who We Are
The Canadian Safe Boating Council (CSBC) is an alliance of members from both public and private sectors committed to preventing boating incidents and drownings. Our mission is to promote safe and responsible boating throughout Canada. We do this by:
- Conducting research and developing boating safety education and promotion campaigns
- Providing common core messages and resources that can also be used by boating safety partners
- Offering cold water awareness training for first responders and the public
- Bringing the boating community together to share safe boating ideas and information, and align our efforts
- Linking with international boating safety organizations to share information and collaborate on activities
- Advocating on safety issues to governments and industry
// established in 1991
A Brief History
The Canadian Safe Boating Council was established in 1991 to improve communication on safe boating issues between government departments and agencies serving recreational boaters’ interests, as well as private companies and organizations in the recreational boating field.
In the early 1990s, various regulatory issues were discussed, with a major focus on lifejacket types and colours. This led to improvements that made Personal Flotation Devices (PFDs) more comfortable and widely accepted.
Annual meetings were held and gradually evolved into educational discussions on safe boating. In 1998, these discussions were formalized into an annual conference (later named the Symposium), featuring seminars and discussions on current issues. The Symposium rotates annually across the country to encourage participation from all regions.
CSBC also began pooling safety brochures from its members and distributing them as kits at the start of each boating season.
In 1997, the Canadian Safe Boating Awards (CASBAs) were created to raise awareness of safe boating through media coverage. The event has been held annually on the first Sunday of the Toronto International Boat Show—a convenient time when many boating leaders are in attendance.
In 2000, the membership structure was modified to allow for individual memberships, and a non-voting category was created for additional individuals within a member organization.
In 2001, CSBC commissioned the Will It Float? study to assess the feasibility of mandating PFD wear. This study initiated serious discussions about mandatory lifejacket wear in Canada.
In 2003, CSBC began formalizing its annual spring launch events and received funding from the Office of Boating Safety.
In 2005, the annual safe boating launch adopted its current format, with extensive safe boating materials prepared for electronic distribution to Canadian media. These materials reached the public as part of Safe Boating Awareness Week (SBAW). Two years later, the U.S. National Safe Boating Council created a similar program, and both organizations adopted the title North American Safe Boating Awareness Week Campaign.
In addition to Safe Boating Awareness Week, CSBC is involved in other boating safety outreach initiatives. Since 2007, CSBC has promoted cold-water awareness through two major programs: Cold Water Boot Camp and Beyond Cold Water Boot Camp. These programs educate the Canadian public and Canadian first responders about the risks of cold-water immersion and provide essential information on rescuing and rewarming hypothermic victims.
In 2010, Ready, Set, Inflate! (RSI) was introduced as part of SBAW. RSI is a world record attempt for inflatable lifejacket inflations and serves as an engaging way to involve the media in promoting lifejacket wear.
Since then, in addition to creating and managing numerous boating safety and outreach programs, CSBC has actively contributed to the development of several online boating safety education initiatives. These include SmartBoaterYouth, Safety First Marine (education program and app), BetterBoater (education program and app), the Weather to Boat app, Northern Youth SuperSAR, RTF/Boss and Shock Factor, to name just a few.
To learn more about some of our programs and initiatives, visit our projects section.