By John Francis
Three local charities struck a joint committee in 2020 with the purpose of finding a way to preserve their mutual interests at Cabot Head.
Their most urgent goal was to do something to reestablish access to Cabot Head lighthouse, to repair the serious water damage caused by the recent “renovation”. The Lightstation — the main destination at the end of Cabot Head Road — has been closed for four years, initially due to environmental remediation and building renovations, more recently because the road washed out. That has left the Friends of Cabot Head trying to find storage facilities for the contents of their museum and retail store but without a revenue stream to do it with. This has been a serious strain on the organization’s Board and volunteer base. (Interested in helping to preserve one of the most historic buildings on the peninsula? Email: cabotheadlighthouse@gmail.com)
Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) owns literally hundreds of historic lighthouses but has very little money or manpower designated to preserve them. If there is an active “Friends” organization in place, they will cooperate. Otherwise, DFO may decide to tear down the buildings (as they did to Flowerpot Island light and Lion’s Head light many decades ago). But I digress.
The Cabot Head joint committee had no authority and no status except that conferred by the credibility of the charities.
They applied for a Trillium Grant to convert Cabot Head Road (currently washed-out and unuseable) to a wilderness hiking/cycling path. Trillium awarded them $124,000 to accomplish this, on condition that the entire grant be spent by Dec 31, 2021.
The committee arranged a series of meetings with all the stakeholders, including:
• Cabot Head landowners — the Crawfords and other families on whose land the road was originally constructed (without permission, by the way…)
• Ontario Parks (who own the land on the west side of the Wingfield Basin channel and are the “landlord” for the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory)
• DFO who own the lightstation and the land on the east side of the channel)
• Municipal staff
• Dyer’s Bay Property Owners Association (who have complained bitterly about the traffic through their village caused by the popularity of Cabot Head)
• Bruce Trail (local Peninsula Club and Staff)
• Saugeen Ojibway Nation
The committee worked with stakeholders and hammered out an agreement which satisfied almost everybody. Almost. I’ll come back to that.
Mike Campbell made a presentation to Council on July 12, He explained that “As of July 1st, 2021, all groups have indicated support for the proposal or are evaluating, including a 3-to-1 vote in favour of the proposal by the local Dyers Bay Association”.
Councillor Smokey Golden had some concerns about the proposal but made it clear that if this is the best compromise available, she wouldn’t want to stand in the way.
IF this is the best compromise… I’ll come back to that, too.
At the August 9 Council Meeting, the CAO brought a report to Council about the proposal. She had some concerns (see story, page 18), and Mayor Milt McIver and Councillor Golden added a few of their own. Councillor Golden stated that a lot of people feel an emotional attachment to that road. She mused that it wouldn’t be too difficult to drum up dozens of letters opposing the initiative.
It’s been almost two years since Cabot Head Road washed out. Public Works Manager Troy Cameron guesstimated it would cost somewhere around a quarter million to restore the road, but that was in early 2020 and the washout probably got worse as the year went on. Cameron pointed out that there were many problems with trying to repair the road. The washed-out section is on private land with no road allowance and a contested wheel-track right-of-way. Also, the repaired road might wash out again with the first strong easterly blow. In any case, Council had no appetite for spending municipal money to repair a trespass road that serves federal and provincial properties. DFO expressed some interest in the road however they can not act in a timely fashion. But whether or not DFO will pay, the main problem remains, which is that any attempt to rebuild a road will be implacably opposed by the landowners whose property it crosses and three quarters of the property owners in Dyers Bay.
Which is to say: it probably won’t happen, no matter what.
But it would be easy to get a few dozen letters passionately defending Cabot Head Road as a two-lane road, including some from the minority of Dyers Bay property owners. That might be enough to paralyze the project for years.
How do you evaluate levels of support for different things without holding weekly referendums? You strike a committee to do a deep dive through all the stakeholder groups; task them with finding the best compromise.
The Cabot Head joint committee has done precisely that and has satisfied all the stakeholders they talked to. They have found a way to keep Cabot Head accessible, including single-lane gated access for logistics and emergency vehicles.
Now it is the Municipality’s turn to provide their input. How should they treat agreements made by a committee they didn’t appoint? How should “due diligence” be conducted? Will their needs be compatible with those of other stakeholders? Will the weight of additional requirements be too much for the project to bear? Can their input – particularly if it requires more public consultation – be delivered in time for the grant to still be spent by year’s end?
All the while the lighthouse continues to deteriorate— water damage is merciless in old, wooden buildings.
The pressure is on and the clock is ticking. I don’t envy the decisionmakers.
