I have been a cottage owner…

I have been a cottage owner on an inland lake in Muskoka for over 60 years. I have seen lots of activity on the water over my lifetime and I can honestly say each year its worse. There is dwindling respect for the land and the waterway that we are truly blessed to have. The years of the pandemic were absolutely the worst. So much of the general public has no clue how to operate a vessel on the waterway. Go check the fish buckets that "tourists" have when they are fishing off dam or public docks. They keep almost everything that they catch. I have asked many of them if they have a fishing license. they usually just say "whats that for?". I spend a lot of time boating in the summer and have had the opportunity to speak to many people who spend abundant amount of time navigating the Trent River and Georgian Bay. These folks can relate numerous stories about the people operating on "houseboat rentals" on these waters. So many stories of garbage being dumped in our waters or on our vacant land. Garbage left in the bush. Many stories of our waters being used as sewers dumping grey water and raw sewage. I cant imagine having some 50 or 60 foot floating can anchored in front of our home for the entire summer and who knows maybe even the winter. This idea of allowing these floating cans permanent access to our waterways to be able to stay permanently makes absolutely no sense. Creating rules for these floating homes sounds like a great idea and I would support however if there is no enforcement of the laws/rules, what good will they be?? This is part of the issue on our lakes that there is a lack of enforcement for the current rules. Campers create fires in the bush in the "Extreme" fire hazard time in the summer. How are police or fire supposed to get to water access only sites in the evening or late at night? This happens with consistency each and every summer. How will bylaw officers or police or whoever is supposed to enforce these laws be able to respond to concerns when there is an extreme shortage of resources to deal with these issues? Saying that these floating homes can only be anchored in the same spot for a certain period of time is a great idea but again how will this be enforced and with in what time frame? I pay taxes on my property to enjoy the great outdoors in Muskoka. I dont have town water or sewer and I dont get garbage pickup unless I take my garbage to the dump. I dont get my road plowed in the winter unless I pay a contractor to do it and I dont get summer maintenance on my road unless I pay for it myself. What "taxes" will be assessed to these floating homes? They will be using the same resources as I so I believe they should pay taxes like I do "each" year. Maybe the added tax revenue from these floaters could be used to hire more resources to enforce what ever rules are created. Sadly I believe that this will be for not anyway. The waterways are federally regulated and I am sure there will be several challenges from the owners of these floating cans saying that Provincial rules can not be applied to a federal jurisdiction. For this reason I am sure these cans will be able to float at will on our lakes until the Federal government does something to reclasssify these floating structures so that provincial laws can be applied. We need a strong united approach to this issue from both the provincial and federal government working together to get this issue dealt with quickly before these floating hazards are allowed to accumulate on our waters. It is much easier to stop it before the movement gets going than to try and stop it once there is a foothold. I am hoping all levels of government can work effectively and quickly to address these floating cans. Oh also these things will need navigation lights visible at all times in the evening and nights so that they can be easily spotted. Pretty funny that everyone is pushing for low light levels and low wattage to keep the landscape natural but we are going to allow these floating things permanent access on our waters where they will have to keep lights on all through the night in order for the rest of us to be safe!