A Windsor city councillor is calling on Transport Canada to set a speed limit on the Detroit River.
Jo-Anne Gignac says damaging waves were crashing the shore during a boat parade Saturday to celebrate U.S. President Donald Trump's 74th birthday.
With water levels dangerously high, Gignac says speed limits need to be set to reduce wakes.
She says, in many cases, sandbag berms were being breached as well.
"Residents are experiencing significant overland flooding and breaching of the sandbag berms they have put in place," says Gignac. "So after Saturday's experience, I had residents with significant damage to their homes."
An estimated 750 boats took part in the Trump birthday celebration on the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair.
Gignac says her phone was ringing off the hook Saturday.
"The first two calls kind of caught me off guard because they were very upset. It's something that we don't have authority over. Certainly we have to get the cooperation of upper levels of government, so hopefully it can be handled quickly," she says.
Gignac says she'd like to see pleasure crafts and freighters slow down.
"People don't want to impact the trade and don't want to impact freighter shipments, but the reality is that even at 10.4-knots, which is a reduced speed, it's causing a problem in the summer time when you also then have all the pleasure crafts out," says Gignac.
The city will now send a letter to Transport Canada urging it to reduce speed limits on the river.
In June, the Windsor Port Authority and City of Windsor extended a buffer zone for boats along the Detroit River.
Under the rule, boats have to be at least 60 metres away from the shoreline, unless they were coming in for docking or to fuel.
The idea is to limit the boat's waves and shoreline erosion as much as possible.
The ban was first put into place in July 2019 to reduce damage to properties and infrastructure.
With files from Rob Hindi