For many years now, the LWRA has partnered with Freecourse.ca to provide our members with an affordable solution to obtaining their PCOC.

Hopefully all you adults out there have long since obtained one (and yes, the OPP does periodically put a boat in our lakes to check). However, as our children come of age to start operating the family boat (any boat with a motor -- including a canoe with an electric motor!) without your direct presence and supervision they will require their own.

Freecourse is now offering an online solution for only $20 per person. The course is free, the test is free, they only charge for the card itself (once you have passed the test)

See https://www.freecourse.ca/ for more information.

We are pleased to announce that we are back in the PCOC testing business. Now that the backlog of mail following the strike has finally eased, we received our new exams yesterday and can once again offer this service.

The fee for members is $15.00 per person. This includes family members -- and we are pretty liberal about that definition! It includes anyone who regularly operates a boat on one of our lakes. The fee for non-members and their families is $25.

Note that under the new testing protocol that went in effect this March, written paper exams are the only way to challenge the new 50 question test. Internet testing can only be conducted as part of a review course now and will take several hours to complete.

As we did not have the new material and could not be certain when it would arrive, we did not schedule a full course for this year. We can do so if there is sufficient interest. Alternatively, you can brush up on your knowledge by taking the free on-line course on our partner's website: www.freecourse.ca (there is also a downloadable/printable study guide on that site).

To book a test, call Bill Somers (705-788-2015) or Dwayne Verhey (705-788-3693) to arrange a mutually convenient time.

As proposed last year, the LWRA is instituting a program to provide our members and their families with substantial savings on operator card testing. Bill Somers (Pallete) and Dwayne Verhey (Waseosa) have been approved as testing agents for our partner, Safetyafloat.

Transport Canada is tightening up the process. They are enforcing new rules about who can conduct the testing, where it can be conducted, and the procedures surrounding the testing. For example, the test can no longer be administered in the candidate's own home and the candidate must produce identification before taking the test -- photo ID for those over 16 or a birth certificate for younger candidates. Transport Canada have indicated they will also introduce a new set of tests sometime in the near future. The phase-in is almost over: everyone will need a PCOC or equivalent by September 1, 2009 to operate a power driven craft (including a sailboat with a motor).

Safetyafloat has an excellent website with all the materials you will need to study at http://www.safetyafloat.ca.

We are offering some courses to provide personal instruction for those who learn best with the assistance of a facillitator or those without internet access. We offered two such courses this past year and will be scheduling at least one next summer, date TBA. The fee for non-members is $45. LWRA Members and their families pay the discounted price of $25. We are liberal in the interpretation of the word "family", with the understanding that we mean the people who regularly visit you and are likely to be operating a power boat on one of our lakes (Ripple, Palette, Jessop and/or Waseosa). That excludes your third cousin once removed who needs directions to the lake because he's never been here before

Challenging the test: You do NOT have to take the course to get your card. You can study the material on-line starting with Module 1 (of 5) at http://www.safetyafloat.ca/train.php. There is no cost to challenge the test unless you pass. The fee is $25.00 per successful person, BUT, the LWRA will discount that to $15.00 per successful person for LWRA members and their families (as defined above).

We will not be setting specific dates for those who just want to challenge the test. You can arrainge that at your convenience by contacting either Bill Somers (705-788-2015) or myself (Dwayne Verhey, 705-788-3693) directly or via the contact form on the left. Bill is on Palette Lake and I am on Waseosa.

Note that new regulations require you to present photo ID (for those over 16 years) or a birth certificate (for those under 16 years). Please remember to bring your ID to the course or test!