Free Chart for Canada Open CPN

[MarcLeQuebecois]

Good day all,
Finally been able to get a few charts running on Open CPN.... US charts..
Would anyone know where I can find free charts for Canadian waters, more specifically looking for the West Coast north and south of Vancouver..
Everything I find points to paying charts, and they look quite expensive...
Especially that it is for back up... So even if they are not so recent, no problem.
Many thx !!
Marc

[PNWSalmon]

Unfortunately Canada copyrights their charts and doesn't make them available for free. You can read their stance on it here: CHS - Frequently Asked Questions

"In Canada, by contrast, there is no barrier to the government exercising its copyright, or from earning revenues from such copyright. "

It's pretty strange, but that's the way they are.

Living in Seattle I travel Canadian waters quite often. We print charts at the Captain's Nautical (legally required for boats in Canadian waters to have paper charts). I buy a chart pack for western vancouver island which is pretty reasonable and works with WINDOWS versions of OpenCPN (requires a special plugin for the encryption).

It's confusing to me that a country with so many thousands of miles of water chooses to monetize critical navigational information.

[wefleenor]

Can you tell me where I can find the reasonably priced paper and digital charts for waters between the mainland and Vancouver Island? Thanks.

Bill

[PNWSalmon]

https://www.fugawi.com/store/categor...l_id=14&page=2 $114 ... which I guess may be reasonable considering the alternative.

I bought this for iPad and then followed their instructions to get a set for opencpn which is a bit convuluted but it worked. You have to register an account with the Canadian government then send them your Web ID and your receipt and they make the chart available.