I am not a cottager at…

I am not a cottager at Rodeau Park, but after visiting a friend's cottage there, I had hoped some day to become one.

The community Rondeau Park struck me as a very welcoming and established community with a lot of concern for the environment in which it exists. I noted that there were several sites of historical importance being maintained at the Park, and I would imagine that some of the cottages, given the age of them, would also qualify as historicallly important sites.

On the issueof the environment, it seems to me that in the century plus of cottaging in Rondeau, there has likely been a balance struck between man and nature which would only be disturbed further by the requirements of this new lease proposal that first, cottagers bring structures up to the Ontario Building Code Standards, and then remove the structures once the lease has terminated.

I would also note that these new lease terms place a great economic hardship on the leaseholders at both the outset and the termination of the new leases, without allowing for them to be able to get out of the lease by selling if they need to. In the last two years we have seen much in the way of financial hardship, and it seems unfair to lock people into a lease that they may have entered into in the "good times", without allowing them an escape if hard times hit.

Finally, as I drove down Highway 3 to Rondeau I could not help but notice the small communities along the highway, with buildings boarded up and businesses failing. There were also a number of abandoned homes sitting sadly empty by the road. I can only imagine that things would get worse financially for those communities as the number of cottagers, who are guaranteed patrons to local businesses, dwindles as they essentially die out under these new lease terms. Rondeau brings badly needed dollars to an already poor part of the province.

For those reasons, I would request that some reasonable changes be made to the proposal and that the Province work with the cottagers and interested parties to come to an agreement that everyone can live with.

[Original Comment ID: 128681]