Transport Canada says it is moving to fix its multimillion-dollar pleasure craft operator card program, amid widespread cheating in the tests and complaints that the cards are largely useless to police.

"Transport Canada is constantly working to improve the program," said Tim McCann of Transport Canada's Office of Boating Safety in Vancouver. "By and large, the program has been successful in increasing the awareness of boaters, safety and general boating knowledge."

This summer marks the first full boating season that all Canadian powerboat drivers will be required to pass an exam and carry a "proof of competency" card while out on the water.

But a CBC investigation found widespread cheating and fraud involving boaters and the private companies accredited by Transport Canada to administer the card-testing program.

In addition, police marine officers complain that the cards lack photographs, and are not connected to a centralized database similar to ones used with highway drivers' licences.

Cheating easy

"I think the idea of a card is a farce. It's nothing more than a tax grab," fisherman Rick Scriver told CBC this week during a boat tour of Lake Chemong near Peterborough, Ont. "Go on the internet, have all the answers in front of you … and pass the test. That's how it worked for me."

Scriver's brother Rod confessed to doing much the same. "My son wrote it," he said. "There's not much quality at all if somebody else can write the test for you."

CBC conducted its own experiment and found it is simple to pay a $50 fee to one of dozens of online companies and take the test, consulting cheat notes or looking up answers on the internet without any supervision, and be granted a government-approved card.

CBC also obtained Transport Canada documents that show government inspectors conducted 32 "monitoring sessions" last summer involving companies administering the tests, and found that rules were broken by 18. Over the past two years, Transport Canada has suspended four companies over their handling of the boater card testing.

Cameron Taylor of Boatsmart Canada acknowledges problems with the pleasure craft operator card program, but says it has raised safety awareness. (CBC)"We'd like to see the quality of the testing by course providers improved across the country … unfortunately some are less scrupulous than others," said Cameron Taylor of Boatsmart Canada, one of the companies accredited to administer cards and online testing.

Taylor said there have been numerous problems in the delivery of the program, but he believes the card requirements are forcing boaters to change their attitudes.

"People now understand, 'I can't just hop in the boat without any prior knowledge and just go out on the lake. I need to pass this exam and at least get that basic knowledge,'" Taylor told CBC this week on Lake Chemong.

Taylor and his crew will be out patrolling Ontario lakes this weekend conducting "courtesy stops" to advise boat drivers of the new requirements and that they could face a $250 fine if caught without a card.

Cards 'virtually useless' to police

Cam Wooley, a former Ontario Provincial Police officer who has spent years advocating for highway and marine safety, said the cards are a sad disappointment.

"They spent all this time and money, and ended up with something that's virtually useless to enforcement officers," Wooley told CBC at a Canadian Safe Boating Council spring event in Toronto.

"Right now the police can't even query [a database] at this time," Wooley said. "If police stop somebody in a boat, unlike with a highway car licence, it takes 48 hours to find out who owns the boat, and it's difficult to find out if the person stopped even has one of these operator cards."

Staff Sgt. Chris Whaley, the Ontario Provincial Police spokesperson on boating safety, says police will 'work with what we have.' (CBC)The current provincial police spokesperson on boating safety, Staff Sgt. Chris Whaley, didn't complain directly about the existing program. But when pressed, he told CBC: "If [I] was designing a competency card? It would have a photo on it. It would be something we could search in a database. It would be something we could revoke. But that's not what we have … and we'll work with what we have."

Transport Canada, which has been phasing in the card requirements for a decade, is moving this spring to consolidate all the records of accredited card-testing companies into a central database.

It's intended to help boaters who've lost their cards get replacements. It's unclear whether the database will be of any help to police marine unit officers who stop boaters on the water.

Senior Transport Canada officials in charge of the program declined requests for an interview.