Dear Sir/Madam: I am writing…

Dear Sir/Madam:

I am writing to express my serious personal objections to the MNRF’s proposed new restrictions on “camping over water”, particularly as they would apply north of the French and Mattawa Rivers.

As a lifelong resident of Northern Ontario, a longtime local sailboat cruiser of the North Channel and a former Ontario Registered Professional Forester of lengthy experience (including with MNRF), I am appalled by this intended application to Northern Ontario of a dubious solution to a Southern Ontario “problem”. There is no appreciable issue to resolve up here, but there is the potential for polarization and conflict due to inappropriate regulatory overreach.

Even during the height of our North Channel cruising season, with hundreds of boats present from both sides of the border, conflicts between boaters and cottagers are almost non-existent due to mutually respectful attitudes. In fact, one cottager famously hosts a nightly BYOB Happy Hour on his deck for all the appreciative boaters anchored nearby! There is none of the “us and them” that these proposed rules would potentially foster. Instead, we get along - like Northerners usually do. And yes, I am a cottage owner as well as a cruising sailor, so I see both sides.

Consider further the business to be lost by countless Ontario marinas whose dejected customers would have few anchoring options left to them. Consider also the cost:benefit relationship of MNRF’s under-resourced Conservation Officers attempting to enforce the maximum cumulative use provisions of this incongruous proposal, rather than enforcing critical fish and game laws. Consider the time, money and effort to be incurred by Ontario in unsuccessfully defending these regulations against the overarching jurisdiction of the Government of Canada around navigation and moorage rights of cruising vessels plying Great Lakes waters. Consider the reputational risk to the Government of Ontario of promoting what is now viewed as elitist legislation designed to protect the interests of a privileged few waterfront property owners, rather than “all the people”.

For these reasons, and more, I respectfully urge MNRF to “deep six” this proposal, particularly in Northern Ontario north of the French and Mattawa Rivers. This is not the time or place for a solution in search of a trivial to non-existent problem.

Thank you for this opportunity to comment.