The Rondeau Cottagers…

The Rondeau Cottagers Association (“RCA”) was formed as the Rondeau Park Leaseholders Association in 1928 and represents more than 90% of all cottage owners inside Rondeau Provincial Park. We are recognized by the Province of Ontario as one of three stakeholders in Rondeau, along with Ontario Parks and the Municipality of Chatham-Kent.

The RCA enthusiastically supports ERO 019-0907. This three-year lease extension should be granted automatically to all leaseholders. This time period should be used to mutually negotiate a permanent tenure solution that will ensure the cottage community remains forever. If a permanent solution is reached prior to the three-year deadline, we support it being implemented as soon as possible.

Rondeau Provincial Park was created in May 1894 by the “Rondeau Provincial Park Act”. Under the Act, the park was chartered for the purpose of providing cottaging opportunities for residents of Chatham & Kent County. Sadly the original cottages have all been demolished; the oldest cottages still standing were built around 1900. However their owners keep them in excellent repair and their families continue to enjoy them every summer. Our community has been here since the very beginning; many Rondeau families trace their roots here back many generations.

The Rondeau cottage community has been integrated into the park’s natural environment for over a century. The province has long considered Rondeau as the “Crown Jewel” of diversity in the Ontario Parks system, and it could not be this way if cottages were harming the ecology for the past 125 years. None of the available evidence on our community’s impact on the larger park environment has been any worse than neutral, and several studies have pointed-out a net benefit provided by human habitation structures to shelter species at risk. We believe the permanent continuation of our community offers the least-possible harm to the park’s ecosystem.

We are pleased that Rondeau supports one of the largest concentrations of rare species within a protected area in Ontario, and is home to 132 provincially-significant Species at Risk. We consider them to be our neighbours and our friends, and we believe that such a varied, thriving population can only be indicative of a healthy balance being achieved. Any claim of long-term environment harm caused by cottagers is simply unsupported by factual data.

The definition of Ecological Integrity leaves-out a significant and arguably relevant line from the Provincial Parks & Conservation Reserves Act (2006) which recognizes the need for “recreational enjoyment” within the definition of Ecological Integrity. We love this place, and we believe that parks are for people, too.