Well IMO - it is a money making exercise for flying schools.
Yesterday I asked our FIO about doing my BFR with him as he was on site and I had I had four sectors including water work, a controlled airspace entry and departure, two dead legs (able to perform emergency procedures on them) and one non revenue leg to complete. As I completed my last BFR with him, I was staggered when the the answer he relayed from his supervisor was that I would have to do it with a grade one instructor because flying schools were complaining that when FIOs did it would take work away from them.
So instead of doing it the type of aircraft I usually fly, I will end up doing it in a 172. Even if I could find a grade one instructor with access to an amphibious caravan and any semblance of currency in amphibians, the commercial hiring rate of the aircraft ($2600 per hour) plus an instructor is prohibitive. Even less likely is possibility of finding an instructor with access to an amphibious Beaver - the only other type of aircraft I have flown in the last four years, and in all probability the only two types that I will fly in the next two years as well.
Add to the fact that the nearest grade 1 fixed wing instructor is over a 150km drive away just adds insult to injury. Value for the BFR - a stamp in the log book which will almost keep me legal and a ground review of a procedures.
SHAME CASA SHAME