Some may be aware of this situation, others may not, but it quite possibly affects YOU if you own a chart plotter and boat/fish in ANY Canadian waters.
C-MAP
(click on “Attn:Canadian Boaters” to left at home page and select Navionics, C-Map Q&A.)
Essentially, if you own ANY plotter that is supported by a Navionics or C-Map chip, you cannot buy Canadian fishing or navigation data. Your comments and questions are welcome.
Jeff
I’ll appologize in advance for being a little slow with all of the legal and technical terminology.
When it says plotter, do you mean ANY Navionics or C-Map card compatible gps with mapping capabilities? (I.E. Garmin, Raymarine, Eagle?)
Does this also mean that there will be no Lac Seul GPS cards into the unforseeable future? 
That is exactly what it means.
Still working on Lac Seul tho.
Jeff, It appears negotiations went poorly to say the least. For USA data cards that have SOME Canadian waters included, when can we expect to see a revised USA only version available (I’m thinking about chart #10 for example).
Thanks!
Wade
Wade,
Very shortly. We will revert CHS data back to data that is not monopolized my NDI or remove it altogether. Already our Great Lakes product has been revised as have others that had previously included CHS data and are on store shelves today.
The Region 10 Gold should be converted to non CHS/NDI data shortly.
As I explained to you before Wade, its the boater who looses. I lack an explanation as to why a company that was chosen by the Canadian Hydrographic Service to represent the best interests of its boating public is doing the exact opposite.
Too bad the safety and convenience of Canadian boaters is being infringed upon by a company that has placed personal profits ahead of public interest. And too bad that the CHS is doing nothing about it.
Jeff, it sounds like a very unfortunate situation, but it does appear Navionics has a solution that will meet the needs of our members here at In-DepthAngling.com.
I am sure many of the folks who read this forum will be happy to know that the Hotmaps #10 will still be available. Is it correct that it will still include Lake of the Woods but you will use a source not associated with the Canadian monopoly?
Very strange if the data was commissioned by a public entity.
Does Canada not have a FOIA type law by which the data can be made public?
Gianni,
Jeff will be able to explain this better than I but my understanding is that Canada turned the rights over to a private holder. Why, I don’t know, but it looks like they made a mistake. I compare it to our “managed” health care system in the US. It’s “managed” to leave the public with high health care cost, and has left many without health care at all. Something that’s for the “public good” in the hands of private companies who exist to make a profit. Sounds like a great idea??? 
Don’t know how their Freedom of Information Act works, but in this case they utilize their MOIA.
Mis-management Of Information Act
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