As a cottager of over 60…

As a cottager of over 60 years family ownership on Kawagama Lake, I am writing to urge the government of Ontario to reconsider the over ruling of local community bylaws and standards which require a 1,000 metre distance for ANY AGGREGATE QUARRIES from lakes. Not only does such an over-ruling of local County Plans and standards neglect to protect our waterways and lakes from encroachment, pollution, and noise it also has great potential to lower our standards of living in the rural-wilderness cottage and recreation areas and lower property values of those affected. In particular, the exposed massive expansion (by Bacher Construction Ltd) of the McClintock Quarry to within 400 metres of Harvey Lake would greatly damage that community's life-style, quiet enjoyment of recreational lands, set a dangerous precedent for ALL lakes within Haliburton County, and completely override the township and county's long-term plan which is designed to preserve water quality and recreational property values in perpetuity by ensuring that no major industrial or aggregate quarrying takes place within 1000 metres of lakes. It is simply undemocratic to permit the "Crown" to abuse it's authority in over riding local planning, locally elected councils, county-plans and townships by decreeing without any public input whatsoever and no method of appeal generally known or established for householders and cottage owners in the areas of aggregate quarries, which do pollute lakes and destroy quality of life as well as threaten endangered species such as Blandings turtles in the area. I strongly oppose this overriding of local democratic county long-term plans which seek to preserve the natural environment residential and cottage property values and wildlife in one of the largest tourist-recreational zones in Ontario.