Parks need to recognize,…

Parks need to recognize, support and protect not only the ecological values of the park, but the heritage and historical values. The cottages, churches, pavilions, yacht club and stores are all part of Rondeau history and must continue.

The proposal lacks vision, opportunity and fails to recognize local economics and individuals property rights. The proposal is very confrontational, aggressive and beaurocratic. It lacks political sensitivity and a spirit of working cooperatively to achieve goals and objectives for Rondeau.

Taking on a preservationist approach to Parks is a recipe for failure. Parks are for people and the vision for Rondeau should be to support opportunities to attract all sectors of society. Why are you fighting the cottagers, they are a form of use. Recognize it for its values instead of looking only at negatives. Cottages bring in the owners, families, and friends and help attract out of province and out of Canada. Why note support or promote commercial use of cottages and year round use. In the west we use the commercial opportunities to provide things like bird guiding and equipment and book sakes, bed and breakfast services, local arts and craft businesses, nature hiking, touring, opportunities for people without cottages. Use the cottages and cottagers as an asset for the park. Cottagers because of their property ownership, have a unique passion for the park that can be channelled to the Parks advantage.

Provincial Cottage lease fees should be directed back into the park for mgmt. and held in a designated revenue fund to pay for programs to improve the mgmt. of the park, to assist with programs to address real issues.

If the existence of cottager creates administrative problems for Prov. Parks, use some of the annual lease funds to create and run the Cottage Assoc. and make it self regulating such that the association hires staff to deal with all delegated tasks.

The government must recognize the personal investments in cottages. They are real property and classified as lease improvements in Alberta. Governments are responsible for compensating lessees in AB for all improvements at fair market value. Leases in AB are transferred among owners for real property value. The government will never have the funds to buy out the cottages, so must work with cottagers to tackle collectively the problems and issues that a preserved to threaten the Park.

Your proposal must recognize the social values of the cottages to the local area and their significant contribution to the local economy. The Park Mgmt. Plan does not speak negatively of cottages, and although it prioritizes all cottages for acquisition, in reality, there are a couple of focused areas. Your cottage lease proposal does not really jive with your Mgmt Plan Working cooperatively over time, would be much more realistic and less confrontational. Relocation of some cottagers from high priority acquisition to low priority areas as cottages become opportunistically available is more reasonable.

In conclusion, support cottages in Rondeau, and continue with leases and renew them in 10 or 25 year intervals to allow for ajustments in fees and conditions. Allow transfers, inheritance and sales as normal properties, but provide opportunities for the Government funds and dedicated Cottage fund to have first priority of purchase. Also, lets collectively work on the first two priority areas and allow transfers and relocations as a more tolerable approach to achieving the objectives. Demand for additional public space is not very significant.

If Prov. Parks really does not want cottages, then I suggest you subdivide the cottage lots out of the Park and transfer them to the local municipality. That will solve your problem with not cost to you. Cottages will become real property with taxes and services paid to the municipality.

[Original Comment ID: 129066]