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Controversial letter causes stir

By Daniel R. Pearce , Simcoe Reformer

Tuesday, September 11, 2012 10:35:13 EDT PM

The Ontario government wrote a letter to Norfolk’s mayor one year ago blatantly objecting to council’s plans to promote Long Point beach to tourists — but it’s only becoming public now.

The letter to Mayor Dennis Travale from the Ministry of Natural Resources was revealed during council’s Tuesday night meeting as cottagers who have objected to town hall’s position looked on.

The letter, dated Sept. 6, 2011, is significant because elected officials have bitterly clashed with the point’s summer residents over the issue for the past couple of years.

Correspondence to the mayor normally goes to the full council, which would have had the MNR’s opinion in front of them while debating what to do.

Summer residents have strongly opposed the county pointing tourists to the beach, which runs in front of their cottages. They say their paradise turns into a state of siege on some weekends with visitors trespassing on their property, clogging roads, and going to the washroom on their properties.

A better spot for tourists, they say, is the MNR’s park farther down the point. It has parking, washrooms, changing facilities, and access to the beach.

Council, however, has expressed the feeling the beach is open to everyone and should be promoted as Norfolk looks more and more to tourists to boost its economy. County residents should also be able to use it, they have said.

Elected officials voted to put up signs pointing tourists to beach access points, which run between cottages, and to upgrade shoulders on roads to create more parking spots.

The ministry letter noted that it owns and controls the beach and sending tourists there has caused “numerous” complaints from summer residents. “We do not feel adequate consultation occurred prior to this decision,” the letter reads. “We also believe that plans  were not in place to include the necessary infrastructure to accommodate and deal with the significant increase in

public use of the beach.”

 

It also asks the county to take down signs pointing the public to the beach access points.

Travale told the meeting that “when it was brought to my attention that the letter existed,” he asked staff at town hall to search for it but “nowhere in this building could we find a copy.” All correspondence to his office, he said, goes to council as a matter of course. “Anybody with any weird conspiracy theories, get rid of them,” Travale said. “There’s no smoking gun.”

The letter had also been copied to Houghton Coun. Betty Chanyi, whose ward includes Long Point and who chairs a committee of citizens who advise council on its policy for the beach. She told the meeting she didn’t make the letter public because she had been “copied” rather than addressed

directly by it. “I am not embarrassed by what happened,” Chanyi said in an interview after Tuesday night’s meeting. “I did what any other councillor would do: receive it as information. “I was not expected to be the one to respond or take action.”

Cottager John Henderson — who found the letter after doing a Freedom of Information search with the MNR — said he was “disappointed” with Chanyi. As chair of the advisory committee, “she should have stepped up to that letter” during the group’s meetings, Henderson told reporters during a break Tuesday. Henderson said he made an FOI request to town hall for correspondence between the MNR and the county over the beach issue but received “zero” documents. When he made the same request to the MNR, he said he received 16 pieces, including the letter to Travale.

Travale pointed out to the meeting that the MNR has a representative at the meetings of the advisory committee — which makes recommendations to council — who participated in “discussions” that led to council’s resolutions on the matter. That person, he added, is not the same person from the MNR who signed the letter.

Simcoe Coun. Charlie Luke expressed concern the letter was not on council’s agenda earlier. “My first question is why would this letter to Norfolk County not somehow find its way to us?” he asked. “That is a concern to me.”

The letter, said Delhi Coun. Mike Columbus, left him scratching his head. Columbus said he has visited Long Point “but we haven’t seen the problems we keep hearing about” from cottagers.  “I don’t know who to believe anymore.”

Henderson said the issue isn’t dead yet. “We’re counting on further actions from the MNR, possibly from as high as the minister,” he told reporters.

The letter from the MNR concluded by calling on the county to stop “any affiliated activities promoting the Crown beach at Long Point. This would allow the committee an opportunity to develop viable solutions for the future that both of our respective agencies can support and take pride in.”

Daniel R. Pearce

519-426-3528 ext. 132

daniel.pearce@sunmedia.ca

twitter.com/danreformer