At the March 1 General Committee meeting, councillors voted in favour of running a test pilot for the 2023 boating season which would see the Brunel Locks operate only from Friday to Sunday as well as holiday Mondays.
Currently, the locks operates seven days per week from Canada Day to Labour Day Monday.
Tarmo Uukkivi, Director of Operations and Protective Services for the Town, told committee that staff have analyzed the numbers and the bulk of the usage happens on weekends and holidays.
In a report to committee, Uukkivi noted that the operating hours during the boating season, from the Victoria Day weekend Saturday through Thanksgiving Monday, are from 10 am to 6 p.m. each day, which amount to a total operating expenditure of $28,149 for a seasonal parks staff person.
“This is the largest operating cost for the operation of the locks. There are also other costs, including capital work that must be undertaken in the next few years to repair in-water retaining walls and the locks themselves. The capital costs are expected to be over $1,500,000 to complete the required repairs and maintenance,” according to his report.
Uukkivi noted that on a five-year median average, the locks pull in about $9,874.00 in passes. “The locks are operated at an annual operating loss of approximately $ 19,396.40 per season,” states his report.
“I think that we should continue to look at reducing levels of service to find efficiencies and saving money,” said Councillor Bob Stone.
Councillor Cory Clarke said he’s received many calls regarding the budget that council just passed and people are concerned. “I think we need to look at savings and that could involve service level changes.”
Huntsville CAO Denise Corry told the committee that the recommendation is one example of staff trying to decrease costs.
In the end, committee members agreed to reduce the hours of operation for the locks during the upcoming boating season. Staff are expected to return to council in November, after the boating season, with an analysis of how it went in order to establish a direction for the 2024 boating season.
The recommendation from General Committee will be forwarded to Huntsville Council for ratification.
You can read the staff report, here (pdf).
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I find it amazing that after the 2023 budget was passed on February 27/23 that the Director of Operations submits a proposal in committee ,on March 1/23, to cut the days of operation at the Brunel Locks . When I watched the budget presentation it was apparent that there would be no reduction of any services . It seems that members of council are receiving blow back from the 2023 budget and now are on the “band wagon” to suddenly cut services. Correct me if I am wrong but that should have been done during the budget process not two days after it is passed .Why now ?
It is my understanding that Councilors Armour and Clouthier voted no for this proposal and I applaud them for doing what is right and representing the residents they serve .
As the report states the locks operate at a deficit of $19396.40 . In a multi million dollar budget this is pocket change and in the grand scope of things does not have a significant impact on the budget and the levy.
This council needs to pay attention to what is important to the residents and tourists in this town.
I encourage everyone to contact their councilors an tell them how you feel .
Reducing the hours that the Brunel Locks operates is the most ridiculous decision the town council ever made. .
If one wants to start crunching numbers in that manner, I wonder how other loose use of taxpayers dollars compares. Just recently Lakeland Power was given a 12-year lease for their transition of 6 parking spaces behind the town hall into charging stations. Those who cheered on this decision so that they can have access to this service perhaps forgot that these are municipal prime parking spaces that are given to Lakeland (a for profit company) FREE of charge. No mention made of revenue lost for meters or fines. And if someone questions this, I am sure the vibrant response will be advocacy of the tourism card.
One could delve into so many issues that involve much more money than this cost for keeping the Brunel Locks open during the week. If this place does not support and promote tourism. I don’t know what would trump it! It would be laughable if it wasn’t so pathetic.
We seem to have a lot of people on town council and staff who believe a town should run at a profit. Good luck with that, because then I may no longer have to pay taxes. But until then, we pay taxes and council is to use that money to keep the town viable.
Nothing the town owns, or is a part of the town, turns a profit. I’m sure I will hear about it if there is (!) and I will for sure be surprised.
The arena. The library. The fire station. The Lookout. The Town dock. MHP. Hutcheson Beach. Kent Park ( there’s a half million expenditure entertaining riotous crowds, eh!). Pickle ball courts (maybe need shoveled off to extend the season?) The ball diamonds. All those facilities demand a share of our taxes.
Just as the Locks does.
I find it interesting that our director of operations, works some numbers and tells me that we pay about $30,000.00 a season to operate the locks. That is money spent to pay a worker.
In a similar vein, would it be fair to say that the pickle ball courts cost around $350.000.00, will last 35 years (?), and therefore cost about $10,000.00 per year….. and no one gets paid!
We employ a lot of people, who we pay a lot of money, to find ways to keep our town running and maintain some semblance of the history that brought and keeps us here.
Using a sidewalk is questionable (the shop may be wheelchair friendly, if you could get your wheelchair or land-speeder to it); downtown parking is on the endangered list. We endure roads that require there to be nothing that can bounce or rattle around in the vehicle, including oneself.
My Gramps and my son both worked as lock-keeper, back in the ’50s and 60’s and later into the 80s. I, and a lot of others have memories of spending lots of our free time at the Locks. Many of us helped swing those gates.
Now it seems that the town will deny anyone from south of the Locks, passage to Huntsville, except on the weekends and holidays.
If our Director of Operations applies his cost/return formula to everything the town owns, what else will only open on weekends and holidays?
We elect people to represent us, but once in office, we discover they no longer hear our questions and concerns.
As Mr Spivak says, this is a terrible idea. I encourage all residents to write their councillor and let them know what you think. Monty Clouthier is the councillor for Brunel ward where the locks are located, it’s beyond belief that in his first term he would vote to support the closure of the biggest attraction in the ward.
This is not a decision that should’ve been made absent of public input. This is our community it affects. We live here to enjoy the natural beauty of our area, to travel the lakes and rivers as our predecessors have for hundreds of years. This council would deny us that right without so much as a consultation with the taxpayers who pay for the privilege. So much for access to “40 miles of boating”.
This is a terrible idea. Huntsville spends so much money on other projects and one of the very things that is part of the towns heritage will be basically removed from service.
I think that assuming weather will always be perfect on a holiday or weekend and using data that was likely collected during the Covid pandemic makes for a bad decision.
Perhaps rein in the sunshine list, stop giving so much away to the downtown corridor to enhance their interests, and stop hiring consultants to do the work we already are paying staff to do.
We as taxpayers deserve to have economic responsibility in play by our town fathers and as so many of us ( Muskoka has the highest percentage of retired or over 60 individuals in Ontario) living off what we earned in the decades before that we can’t afford $3-4000 a year tax bills. For many of us that’s a huge percentage of our pensions. I’ve paid taxes here for 46 years and my family has since 1948 but I still drive on a road that has the corduroy logs sticking out of it that were laid down in 1859. And now we get more claw backs of the things we have enjoyed for all our time here? What is the cost of River Mill Park per year and what does it payback? I’m not saying we don’t need it but how do we justify an awkward parking lot, a playground, a music shelter, but not a means of water passage between 2 major waterways that lead into town? Did the town fathers forget who actually lives here?
Think about it.
Living on the Muskoka River I would definitely miss the option of going to town especially when we are hosting relatives. Going by boat to enjoy a meal, ice cream ,or shopping is a genuine Muskoka treat.
I believe the staff that service the lock also maintain the upkeep of the park which is a tourist destination focal point. Travelling around towns in Ontario I was surprised to see what they offered to the locals and tourists. Parks, picnic tables, public beaches, etc. With Huntsville’s tax base we should be able to offer more services to the people not take away.
This closing of the locks during the week is the result of an amazing study by a highly paid group led by a sunshine list recipient. Is it surprising that there would be more activity on the weekend and holiday? I bet there is not a lot of activity on rainy days as well.
The need for a part time staff is also interesting.Could the person who runs the the street snow blower in the winter be capable of opening and closing the locks in the summer.
Reduced service should not be the goal of the municipality. Maybe, and this concept is radical, greater utilization of existing staff.
This site used to have a water powered mill on it.
Some years ago there was talk of installing an electric generation plant on the site but it seemed to come to nothing.
The potential is there.
If the town could find a reliable entity that was able to build an electric generation unit as part of the locks set up they could maybe lease the site to them and use the money to operate and repair the lock.
Alternately maybe whoever was to get the electricity generation rights could maintain and operate the locks at no charge to the town or public and just pay a royalty fee to the town for energy generated.
The potential is here to have better, longer and cheaper lock availability to boaters and visitors in general, while at the same time virtually eliminating costs to the town, maybe even creating some amount of net profit to the town.
Worth some investigation?
If the town is just interested in saving money and does not wish to look at ideas like this, they could just close the lock permanently and let it all go wild and natural too. A pretty sad option but it will save money.
On the other hand if the town can find roughly $300,000 for a washroom in a park, after selling and closing the existing washrooms in the former C of C building, which was itself sold by the C of C when the town would not help them out financially after a weather related disastrous promotional event….. well do they really need to save money at the lock?
You have to wonder at priorities.
Well, as a retiree (among many, here in Muskoka) to whom weekends and holidays are just, well … days … this means that the navigability of this section of the waterway is being reduced by over 50% this summer.