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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - NWT boaters don't need licences - at least not for the foreseeable future.

Boating instructor Pietro De Bastiani, a boating instructor with the Great Slave Yacht Club, said he received numerous calls from worried boaters after a Transport Canada advertisement appeared in Yellowknifer on March 27, warning them they will require a pleasure craft operator card by Sept. 15 to legally drive a boat.

Guenther Golchert, a guide at Enodah Trout Rock Lodge, mans the prop during a pike fishing derby in 2007. Despite a Transport Canada ad indicating otherwise, NWT boaters will not be required to get a licence by Sept. 15. - NNSL file photo

"People who are not members of the yacht club have been calling, basically going, 'we have to have it,'" said De Bastiani.

"I have to keep reassuring people, because I don't want to suddenly start putting on a course for 500 people."

Residents of the NWT and Nunavut are exempt from needing an operator's card starting this fall. Yukon boaters, however - like those in the rest of Canada - are not.

Maryse Durette, a spokesperson for Transport Canada, said the March 27 ad appeared in newspapers across the country, and were placed in territorial publications as a means of raising awareness about boater safety.

"We encourage all recreational boaters to take the course and obtain the pleasure craft operator card."

She said there are currently no plans to make the operator cards mandatory in the NWT and Nunavut, but residents here will need one if they intend to operate a boat south of the 60th parallel.

De Bastiani held a three-day course this week at the yacht club, and said another is planned for April 28 to 30.

The course costs $55 and is followed by a multiple choice exam, which if successfully completed, qualifies participants for the operator card.

He said even though the licence isn't required in the NWT, boaters should still take the course and get the licence for more important reasons than simply to brush up on the rules.

"Insurance companies are going to start asking," said De Bastiani. "They're not going to clue into the fact that North of 60, you don't need it. If you have boat insurance, they may begin asking you if you're certified."