The City of Victoria heads to B.C. Supreme Court on Monday looking for an injunction to remove 16 boats and four docks moored in the Gorge waterway.

The city is seeking a single court order to remove all boats and docks moored in the Gorge waterway in violation of a bylaw.

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That bylaw, approved in 2016, limits boat owners to 48 consecutive hours of moorage in the Gorge and a maximum of 72 hours over 30 days.

Victoria is working with Pacifica Housing to help people living aboard vessels moored in the Gorge.

Boats, some of them derelict, have long been an issue for municipalities lining the waterway.

Citizens, especially those who worked for decades as volunteers to clean up the Gorge, object to people squatting in boats flushing their toilets and garbage into the water.

But municipalities have long been almost powerless to act.

The most troublesome legal issue for municipalities is that the Gorge is considered a navigable waterway. That makes it the jurisdictional responsibility of the federal government.

The provincial government has jurisdiction over the shoreline.

Local governments — Esquimalt, Victoria, Saanich and the Capital Regional District — have spent the past year looking for support from Transport Canada and the province when they must deal with derelict boats and marine squatters.