Diver missing in Ontario

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Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: Body recovered - identity not confirmed (Canadian Press, 1:21 pm EDT Sun Sept 18, 2011)

A man's body was found about 90 metres from shore in the St. Clair River Sunday morning, but police could not confirm whether it was that of a diver who went missing a week ago.

...

Const. Chrystal Jones said police have not made a positive identification yet.
 
Don't be surprised if Ontario instigates it's own version of the Quebec FQAS.

rant/ I really hope that we never do. The St. Lawrence River is visited by many many divers from Quebec who find it easier to dive here in Ontario where there is no "dive police". It's sad the amount of money that the Quebec tourist industry is losing due to the formation of the FQAS who, last time I checked, effectively charge you $30 to get a card that "allows" you to dive in that province. With proof of x number of dives in similar conditions from your log book. On top of your c-card, no less.

Last time I went on the FQAS website there was no translation into English, so it makes it even more tricky for any non-French speaking people to find information on how to get that $30 permit to dive really wonderful places like Rimouski or tech dives like the Empress of Ireland. Please, spare us the concept of the FQAS *anywhere*

end rant/
 
Absolutely agree. That permit is little more than a cash grab. It was apparently designed to keep unqualified divers off the Empress of Ireland and other tech sites.

I believe someone calculated that we have had an average of 4 - 5 diving deaths per year most years in Ontario, so we have just reached that level. Most of the deaths we have had have not necessarily been diver error or something a permit could prevent. One death was a suicide and involved no scuba equipment except a weight belt, so not a diving accident; one death was due to asphyxiation on vomit; one was due to a massive heart attack; one was a heart attack due to hardening of the arteries; and now this one, still to be determined officially.

A permit would not have prevented any of the above accidents this year prior to this one. I guess we'll have to wait and see about this accident.
 
rant/ I really hope that we never do. The St. Lawrence River is visited by many many divers from Quebec who find it easier to dive here in Ontario where there is no "dive police". It's sad the amount of money that the Quebec tourist industry is losing due to the formation of the FQAS who, last time I checked, effectively charge you $30 to get a card that "allows" you to dive in that province. With proof of x number of dives in similar conditions from your log book. On top of your c-card, no less.

Last time I went on the FQAS website there was no translation into English, so it makes it even more tricky for any non-French speaking people to find information on how to get that $30 permit to dive really wonderful places like Rimouski or tech dives like the Empress of Ireland. Please, spare us the concept of the FQAS *anywhere*

end rant/

Although I haven't had the opportunity to dive in Quebec so I can't speak directly to the FQAS concept, I do wonder if the fact that $30 causes people to pack up and drive to another province doesn't say something about the kind of people that are trying to avoid it. Maybe it isn't such a bad idea to give people a second chance to think through their decisions and if someone can't justify $30 to be given that chance then maybe diving isn't for them or their instant gratification demands.

Personally I highly doubt that FQAS or any other system would have helped in this case - he apparently had just completed his OW checkout dives earlier in the day when he attempted this dive.

Simply put - you can't legislate against stupidity but trying to argue against a system because it costs an additional $30 and will cause people to travel elsewhere doesn't make a lot of sense either.
 
Question for you Canadians -- Americans will travel distances to avoid fees 'just on the principle of the thing'. Do those from Quebec look at it the same way?

Any way you look at it, it hurts the youngsters on a tight budget.
 
Maybe it isn't such a bad idea to give people a second chance to think through their decisions and if someone can't justify $30 to be given that chance then maybe diving isn't for them or their instant gratification demands.

Speaking generally here, if I don't want to pay a $30 (or whatever amount) fee because I don't feel it accomplishes anything, do you know that it's because I have "instant gratification demands"? Likewise, do you know that I need to pay someone $30 in order to think through my decisions thoroughly?

Presuming the latter were true, then I might argue than anyone who needs to spend $30 for a permit in order to have the self-discipline to consider their dive plan is probably not going to be any safer for it.

Just some general thoughts that came to mind as I read your post.
 
The last thing I need is to give the government another $30. What possible benefit to me personally could there be that I want to pay $30 for? I would drive to avoid giving those incompetent boobs any more money than I have to. I would do this on principal but if the situation was that I could dive or not, then I would begrudgingly hand over the money every year. Bottom line is, I pay a crapload of taxes etc. to the government and do NOT get value in return. Let's not add to that.
 
Although I haven't had the opportunity to dive in Quebec so I can't speak directly to the FQAS concept, I do wonder if the fact that $30 causes people to pack up and drive to another province doesn't say something about the kind of people that are trying to avoid it. Maybe it isn't such a bad idea to give people a second chance to think through their decisions and if someone can't justify $30 to be given that chance then maybe diving isn't for them or their instant gratification demands.

I'm not really familiar with the details of the FQAS system, so maybe someone who is could clarify things here in this thread, for the sake of this thread's discussion. AFAIK, the $30 permit is an annual thing, for which you need to be certified (every year) by an instructor with an FQAS instructor's certification. (I believe there's also a one month and three-year version, with reportedly varying degrees of inconvenience in actually getting your hands on them.) Does the certification require testing (pool or open water) for which presumably you have to pay an additional amount for the instructor's time and the pool?
 
I never get asked for my FQAS card on shore dives; however, no boat operators would take me without it.

I had to do a 10 questions exam, and 3 exercises at depth. It costs more than the 30$ - you have to have an instructor certify you, extra costs. Plus we went by boat...90$ damage per person. Then it's going to costs 30$ per person of our family.

The boat owner says it has to do with liability.
 
Personally I would have no issue with the $30 ... I pay $20 per year to dive in Tobermory and that is just one area so $30 for an entire province sounds pretty good to me. I also get a little pep talk with that $20 reminding me that the Arabia and Forest City are deep, cold and extra precaution should be taken (personally I have pretty good respect for those wrecks already but for someone new to the area it might be a useful reminder). Now with Mark indicating that it is possibly significantly more then that amount and the statement that the website isn't in English I would start question what value there is. My point was that if it was $30 causing people to travel to a different location then I would also personally question their decision making skills when it comes to dive planning as well.

From what I understand - this individual had just completed his OW checkout dives mere hours before this incident. What ever gave this person or his buddies the idea that it would be ok for a newly minted diver to do this dive (strong unpredictable currents, very limited visibility and in an international shipping lane) baffles me. Would an FQAS approach have prevented this incident? Highly unlikely but I would suggest something could be done to prevent cases where common sense isn't so common.
 
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