Relatives of Nova Scotia fishers who died in a 2020 sinking say it’s frustrating to see that little progress has been made on a key safety recommendation requiring assessments of vessel stability.
Lori Cogswell-Phillips, the mother of fisher Aaron Cogswell, says the federal government is “playing with peoples’ lives” by not acting more quickly on the recommendation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
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The agency in its 2023 report on the sinking of the Chief William Saulis in the Bay of Fundy — which resulted in the deaths of Cogswell and five other fishers — concluded the boat had not undergone a stability test after it was modified.
The safety board had been calling for mandatory stability assessments since a capsizing in 2015 killed three people.
It has said the assessments would permit crews to load catch and gear in a way that helps prevent vessels from flipping over.
The board noted this week in its annual assessment of recommendations that Transport Canada’s response to the decade-old stability recommendation remains “unsatisfactory.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
