By John Francis,
Bruce Peninsula Press
Public parking in Lion’s Head has been a hot topic for a couple of years now.
In 2020, MNBP received many complaints that tourists were taking up all the parking spaces on Main and Webster streets and then walking to the beach and the lookout. This made it difficult for MNBP residents to find parking to visit the businesses in Lion’s Head.
The municipality reacted to 2020’s overcrowding by implementing a strict paid parking regime for the village in 2021. Local businesses complained that this was serious overkill. Paid parking, they said, was driving away their customers and that unexpected tickets were causing people to boycott the village. Scott Hellyer appeared as a delegation at a Council Meeting to explain the business owners’ concerns and answer questions.
Council and staff needed to find a system that would satisfy Lion’s Head’s business community, while still making sure that visitors to the beach, the Bruce Trail and Lion’s Head Provincial Nature Reserve didn’t crowd out MNBP residents wanting to come to the village. The system would also need to generate enough parking revenue to pay for bylaw enforcement (as requested by ratepayers) and not be an enforcement nightmare for municipal employees and contractors. The business community wants free parking on Main Street but residents want restrictions on some side streets, to curtail garbage and tailgate parties.
Is there a way to charge beach visitors without having a negative impact on the business community?
Council decided at a February 28 Special Meeting that the best solution was free downtown parking with a firm time limit. There was much deliberation on whether the time limit should be two hours or three.
In the end, they decided to go with free parking with a two-hour limit on both sides of Main Street and both sides of Webster St. The most desireable tourist parking spots — at the beach, the marina and the McCurdy St lot — will be $5 per hour or $30 per day (free for residents/cottagers with a parking pass). Other areas will probably be $3 per hour/$15 per day. Some side streets will be posted for resident parking only, in an effort to eliminate crowding by tourists without crimping residents’ social lives.
Council also devoted a good deal of time and effort to finding the best solution for parking on Big Tub Rd in Tobermory. The objective is to limit the number of spaces in hopes of preventing crowding at the public area around Big Tub lighthouse, maintain a turning radius at the end of the road for firetrucks and ambulances and to minimize the impact of parked cars on residents’ driveways. An extension of the existing parking lot at the end of Big Tub Road is proposed. This would involve clearing a brushy area but would leave the adjacent cedar hedge intact. Public Works Manager Troy Cameron promised to flag the area so that people can view the boundary of the proposed parking area.
The full details of the proposed parking policy will be in the Agenda for a Public Meeting at the beginning of MNBP’s regular Council Meeting on March 14. That Agenda should be available online by the afternoon of March 10. (Look on the municipal website, — northbrucepeninsula.ca — then click on “Agendas and Minutes” in the bottom right corner. To attend Monday’s meeting on ZOOM, follow the “News” link on the lower left corner of the municipal home page.
The new parking bylaws — amended as necessary — are scheduled to be passed at Council’s March 28 Meeting.
Boat Tours Prohibited?
MNBP’s February 14 Council Meeting saw intense controversy on another hot-button topic — a seemingly harmless Housekeeping Bylaw Amendment to MNBP’s Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw, which will regulate tour boat operations. A lobby group (Big Tub Harbour Citizens’ Committee) has opposed this bylaw, arguing that Tour Boats are not mentioned in the existing (2002) bylaw and that they are, therefore, not permitted. A Public Meeting on the Housekeeping Bylaw was held at the beginning of Council’s February 14 Meeting; the minutes of that Meeting are on pages 11 and 12 of this newspaper. The Agenda included nearly 30 letters in favour of the proposed Bylaw Amendment and nearly 20 letters opposing it. The Motion to pass a Bylaw Amendment passed, with Deputy Mayor Debbie Myles voting against and Councillor Jamie Mielhausen declaring a conflict of interest.
The resulting Bylaw received second reading on February 28. It passed, with Deputy Mayor Myles voting against and Councillor Mielhausen abstaining.
Members of the lobby group have vowed to register a complaint with the Ontario Land Tribunal if the Bylaw passed.
Mill Rate Increase 4.53%
The first draft of MNBP’s Budget for 2022 (begins April 1) was presented at a Special Meeting of Council on February 14. The draft budget proposes a mill rate increase of 4.53% and an overall budget increase of 6.36%. (See Minutes on page 10.) The result will be an increase of $45.74 per $100,000 of assessed value.
Cabot Head Road — Closed Temporarily; Future Uncertain
Efforts to turn Cabot Head Road (currently washed out and posted “Road Closed”) into a pedestrian/cycle trail and single lane emergency access road have been controversial. The proposal was floated by a consortium of local charities, all of whom need access via the road.
The consortium found a compromise proposal that was acceptable to all stakeholder groups — and there are a lot of them — and lined up a quarter million in subsidies, grants and in-kind donations.
But Council was unwilling to close the road to the public, but also unwilling to budget the money to fix it. The charities have worked to find a compromise that was agreeable to Council and the granting/donating parties, with a Trillium grant set to expire at the end of February.
The February deadline came and went, although Elizabeth Thorn, speaking on behalf of the consortium, hopes that this can be finessed if an agreement can be reached to move forward.
Councillor Smokey Golden proposed that the road could be closed to the public at the height of season when it poses a traffic and crowding hazard, but open to residents spring and fall.
Negotiations will move forward on that basis. The issue is expected to be before Council again at the March 14 Meeting, with the consortium once again appearing as a delegation.
In the interim, Council voted to formally close the road until an agreement to open it can be reached.
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Excerpt from a recent information release from Bruce County:
“Inclusive Community Grants Application (2022-23)
The Human Services Committee supported the Bruce County Seniors Home Sharing project and approved that Council’s endorsement be included with the submission to the Ontario Government for funding consideration under the Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility’s Inclusive Community Grants Program. Bruce County Seniors Home Sharing project proposes to hire a consultant to explore options and opportunities in setting up a Seniors Home Sharing program here in Bruce County. A Senior Home Share program would bring together older home providers with individuals seeking an affordable place to live. In exchange for providing a private room in their home, seniors would receive household assistance or rent from their housemate, or a combination of the two. This would increase affordability and support for seniors. Those looking for rooms to rent could be students, work only part-time, have recently retired and now live on a fixed income, or others in need of affordable housing for a variety of reasons. The resulting consultant report would assess need, feasibility, costs, and present an action plan for next steps, based on industry best practices. Integral to the development of a home share program will be the inclusion of screening and support measures for the safety and security of all those involved. The funding request from the Inclusive Community Grants program for this project will be $60,000.”
Mixed Signals on COVID
The number of hospitalized COVID patients in Ontario is dropping steadily, as is the subset of hospitalized people who are in ICUs. The hospitalization rate in Grey Bruce (expressed as the number of people hospitalized with COVID per 100,000 population) is well below the provincial average. The number of COVID deaths is dropping too.
But all of those numbers are “lagging indicators” — they tend to reflect infections that happened weeks ago. It is unsettling that one leading indicator — known as the “wastewater signal” — is not dropping anymore. In fact it may be rising slightly. The wastewater signal is the amount of COVID measured in sewage. (I am not making this up.) The wastewater signal for Southwestern Ontario, the region which includes Grey-Bruce, is among the lowest in Ontario, but still — it has stopped dropping. (https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/ontario-dashboard/#wastewatersignal)
It is not clear if this number includes any data from the peninsula; it seems unlikely, given that we have no large sewage systems.
But still, it suggests that continued caution might not be pointless.
