I really don ' t think this has anything to do with TFW ' s does it ? The ship is now registered in another country going to do other work during winter when the work within Canada is dead . Cabotage rules means that if the company wants to operate within Canada the ship will have to change back to the Canadian flag anyways . If the company wants the ship to operate outside Canada then the company can do so . When they change the flag they change the rules they need to follow . When within Canada the rules are strict , outside of Canada they aren ' t . If I owned a boat and I wanted to rent it to another country for a few months the other company could borrow my crew , or they could choose to use their own .