The first year of Edmonton’s new life-jacket/PFD requirement

In May of 2025, s.61 of Edmonton’s new Public Spaces Bylaw began mandating all adult boaters within the city boundaries wear a life jacket or a personal floatation device (PFD). 

For the purposes of this requirement, anything that floats is a “boat” (with two listed exceptions) and the bylaw addresses paddling on the North Saskatchewan River (NSR) as well as the various creeks and ponds within the city limits. 

Requiring recreational boaters to wear a life-jacket/PFD is a more stringent requirement than those in the Canada Small Vessel Regulations (s.209) of simply having a PFD on board. 

Calgary adopted a similar requirement in 1974(!). The rationale for Edmonton’s change is to increase boater safety. The basic argument is that, like seat belts, life-jackets/PFDs only work if you wear them because there is not usually adequate time to locate, put on, and fasten one when it is needed, particularly in cold water. 

I spent a couple of hours reading academic papers on life-jacket/PFD use and efficacy. Research on the efficacy of PFD/life-jacket use by paddlers in conditions similar to those present in Alberta is uneven. This mostly reflects the design of studies which (1) often combine, to some degree, data on motorized and non-motorized boating, and (2) examine boating in multiple and/or non-analogous locations (e.g., oceans, warmer climates). This publicly available meta-analysis offers a good starting point if you are curious. 

 Those caveats aside, there does seem to be good evidence that:

• When there is an incident (e.g., a boat capsizes), the risk of drowning tends to higher for users of kayaks and canoes than for users of larger and motorized boats.
• Wearing a life-jacket/pfd is associated with a significantly reduced risk of death by drowning. 
• Life-jacket/pfd use among paddlers is higher than among motorized boaters but is still uneven.
• Mandatory-wear requirements increase wear rates.

I thought it might be useful to examine what happened during the first year of Edmonton’s bylaw change. The city’s park rangers were kind enough to share some of their stats (they are the primary enforcers of the bylaw). These stats provide only a partial picture because three separate agencies patrol and/or respond to events primarily, but not exclusively, on the NSR. The Edmonton Police Service patrols, mostly enforcing provincial statutes around alcohol and cannabis use. The Edmonton Fire Department provides search and rescue services.

A couple of things stand out to me in these stats.

• Upward trend in paddling: The number of citizen contacts has trended upwards. While this number is not necessarily a proxy for rising numbers of boaters (since it could reflect changes in the number of patrols conducted and/or record keeping), it is consistent with my observation that the number of paddlers on the NSR had risen dramatically in the past five years.
• Non-compliance: Of the 3460 warnings given by the park ranger maritime program in 2025, 1464 included a violation of the PFD/life jacket requirement (this data was provided to me separately). This means of the 10,842 total contacts, about 13.5% of boaters were non-compliant.
• Enforcement through education: As is typical when new rules are introduced, the park rangers appear to have focused on educating and warning boaters about non-compliance. Presumably, there will be more stringent enforcement of the PFD/life jacket requirement going forward. The Public Spaces Bylaw provides for fines of $250 for first-time violators.

North Saskatchewan River: Quesnel Bridge to Dawson Park

In late July, I had some family visiting and we decided a fun way to see the city is by paddling through it on the North Saskatchewan. We put our boats in under the Quesnel bridge (south side, just off the road into Fort Edmonton) and pushed off. 

The river was up a bit over normal flow at this time year (rain and maybe a bit of water release upstream). What would normally be a 2.5 hour paddle was done in 2 hours with little paddling on our part.

The water was pretty muddy still and we saw a guy running a sluice box below the Mayfair golf course.

It turned into a beautiful sunny morning.

There were some sirens going over the Walterdale bridge and that set off coyotes on the north and south side, including this guy below the old water treatment plant.

We had to strip off some layers at the halfway point because it was suddenly 25 degrees!

There was enough water the run the channel on the south side of accidental beach but the access was blocked by people trying to cross out to the island!

We eventually pulled out just below the Roland Road bridge in Dawson Park.

Overall, a fun way to see the city and give my niece a Canadian experience.

North Saskatchewan, Laurier Launch

In mid-April, the ice was mostly off the North Saskatchewan and I put in at the Laurier Park launch for a quick run. The water level was a low summer levels.

I ferried across to the south side and then went upstream for about half an hour. There were some nice ice shelfs in the shade of the bank and small bits of ice (fist sized) floating past.

Not much for birds (a few gulls and ducks) but the robins were singing in the trees.

You can just make out the usual water level on the rock below (about half way down the exposed face). Most of the larger pieces of ice visible in the water were grounded on gravel bars.

I went almost to the Quesnel bridge and then cut across to the sunny north bank for the float back. There were a few larger floaters here and a small cluster of bergs jammed up on the gravel shelf below the bank swallow colony.

All told, an okay paddle for early in the year on the North Saskatchewan. Looking forward to warmer weather and some lakes opening up.

North Saskatchewan River, Quesnel Bridge to Dawson Park

On the Thanksgiving weekend, we float through downtown Edmonton to take in the autumn colours.

We put in below the Quesnel Bridge and the river was super clear.

The water was at summer levels so no gravel bars and we made it to Dawson par in about 2 hours (maybe 14km?) with little paddling.

The river was weirdly empty for a long weekend. Maybe we were just a bit earlier than most folks but we saw only one other boat (beached) the whole trip.

The colours were great.

The water was also super calm the whole way (no upstream breeze).

We pulled out just below the Rowland Bridge at Dawson Park.

Overall, a pretty and quiet trip that was mostly unremarkable.

North Saskatchewan River, Emily Murphy launch

In early October, I got up before the sun and hustled down to the launch at Emily Murphy Park to catch the morning light. 

I don't usually post about paddling the river since it is pretty much always the same paddle. I decided to put this one here because the sky was very pretty as I launched and worked my way upstream.

There was no wind and a nice bit of morning mist on the water.

I saw six different beavers out between Emily Murphy and the Mackenzie ravine.

At this point, I turned around. The car read 2C when I started and 4C when I got back and I was cool, despite two jackets.

This is probably the peak of the leaf colours. 

The southward shift in the sun was really noticeable.

The water was summer low, but not as low as usual for the autumn (where the gravel bar the gull is standing on is usually revealed and dry.

I got back without seeing alone else out on the water. There were a few commuters on the paths.

This was my 60th paddle this year, which I think is a record. I expect we'll have a few more before freeze up although putting the garden to bed is occupying more of my time and the shorter days makes it hard to get out.