Dear Premier Doug Ford,

We respectfully ask that you please reconsider the ban on outdoor recreational activities, including sailing.

We sailors are a free minded group of outdoor loving individuals. We love everything about it - wind, sun, water and being close to the nature. The outdoors for us is the essential refuge from the stress creating by the pandemic. Being on the water is the one safe place we can go to recharge in solitude.

The sailing clubs in Ontario are not crowded even on the sunniest day in the middle of the summer. Sailors go to the sailing clubs to sail. We choose to sail instead of going to the mall. That's the kind of folk that we are.

We urge that at this point in the pandemic, where most of the highest risk groups have already been vaccinated, unlike a rules-based approach, which imposes detailed rules designed to provide clarity and legal certainty to the participants of our society, that you would consider a principles-based approach and allow us to self-regulate our environment. We pose no or very low risk of viral transmission, and there have been no known cases of transmission at sailing clubs over the duration of the pandemic.

The principles-based approach that we are suggesting, is clearer, simpler, and less costly to apply. It allows sailing clubs to tailor their supervision and compliance functions to fit their activities. It also requires good judgment in comparison to the prescriptive, rules-based approach. The guidance to ensure compliance that accompanies principles-based regulations is often detailed enough to be considered a rule.

We ask for your understanding and agreement that our small, mostly volunteer run boating clubs provide an uncrowded venue for members to launch their boats and enjoy the fresh air and much needed sunshine. Our watercrafts (keelboats, kayaks, small dinghy sailboats, canoes) are largely operated by people from the same households, and, now more than ever, single handed.

For members of sailing clubs, including front line workers, being close to their boats represents an essential part of their lives, and carries virtually no risk to virus transmission, or, if one wanted to compare, a similar level of risk that one riding their bike or being in their convertible automobile would carry.

With Gratitude,

Your Ontario Sailors and Boaters