At the request of Huntsville Councillor Cory Clarke, at their March 27 meeting council revisited a recommendation coming out of General Committee to reduce the hours of operation for the Brunel Locks to just Friday to Sunday and holiday Mondays for the 2023 boating season.
“I felt that it deserved a second look and some more conversation before the decision is made final,” said Clarke. “I received a lot of feedback from residents and cottagers and realtors that reached out to me personally by phone and by email… to those people I want you to know that I heard your concerns and I understand that it’s not a service that many people want to see cut.”
Clarke said that based on the volume of people who reached out, he would be voting against it but said staff should continue to monitor the usage of the locks.
Councillor Monty Clouthier said he also had many calls on the issue—the majority against the reduction of hours. He said the municipality advertises 40 miles of boating “which we will not be providing if we do this and also a lot of people that purchase property they purchase them with the idea of 40 miles of boating, and again we’re not providing that service to them,” he said, adding that savings could be found elsewhere. “… It’s not bad to be able to realize that we made a mistake. It makes us honest,” he said of the approval of the reduction in hours by Huntsville Council at the General Committee level.
Clouthier also noted that cutting services to find efficiencies on the heels of passing the budget wasn’t a good move.
Councillor Scott Morrison, who was away when General Committee met and passed the resolution, said he agrees with his fellow councillors. “I don’t see this as something we should be cutting at all. We’re providing this access for people all the way down from Mary Lake to get into town and vice versa so I definitely would be voting no, that we wouldn’t cut that service.”
Councillor Helena Renwick said she did not vote in favour of the motion then and said she’s still not in favour of it. She said she supports the idea of expanding the service not cutting it and questioned whether increasing the fees at the locks could be considered.
“I originally voted in favour of this, cutting this level of service, looking for efficiencies,” said Councillor Bob Stone. “I’m happy to change my mind and keep the current level of service.”
Councillor Dione Schumacher said she was in favour of the motion at first because she liked the idea of finding efficiencies. “I do agree with Councillor Clouthier that it didn’t show good faith when we had just passed a budget saying we weren’t going to cut services and then turn around and come back and cut services.” She said she still thinks the service level should be reviewed “and then maybe come back in a year or two and see where we are there.”
Deputy Mayor Dan Armour said he also didn’t vote in favour of the reduction of hours at General Committee. “I’m just glad that Councillor Clarke pulled this.” He noted that those who voted in favour of the reduction of hours seemed to have a change of heart, “and I’m really happy to see it.”
Councillor Jason FitzGerald said the process obviously works, referring to council’s change of heart. “I’m happy with the process and I did support the vote the first time around and I don’t think I will this time. I would like to request that in gathering information for the operation of the locks next year that we would include the number of passengers on the vessel in that information that comes to us for budgeting purposes. And I guess one final thought is there seemed to be a bit of confusion about us maybe abandoning the locks and some of the work that needs to be done there and I just want to inform the public out there that’s definitely not the case,” said FitzGerald.
Mayor Nancy Alcock also said she has had a change of heart. She said she supported the motion at General Committee “but I was really reluctant. I started off saying I wasn’t going to support it and then I changed my mind after the dialogue but I agree with Councillor FitzGerald, the one thing this has proven to me—I hate causing the community anxiety – but it shows the process working. We have a discussion at our General Committee and then two weeks later the issues that we talked about are to be ratified at council. And if we’ve really gone off in some direction that clearly is a mistake, and I certainly will speak for myself, maybe not a terribly well thought out vote, then we can change the course and do exactly what we’re doing right now,” said Alcock.
In the end, council voted unanimously to keep the current hours of operation for the locks.
Staff was asked to clarify the cost of the passes. Director of Finance/Treasurer Jula MacKenzie said a regular pass is $92 and a season’s pass is $75. “Which is quite reasonable,” commented Alcock. She thanked community members for writing and advising of their opposition in a respectful manner.
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Kudos to council for reversing the original decision! And kudos as well to all the folks in the community, who reached out to their representatives, whether by phone, email or just commenting on media posts, and making their opinions known. It really is refreshing to see local government functioning as it should.
Huntsville has a rich history and the Brunel Locks are an important part of that.
Great move Dan Armour on your part and that of Councillor Clarke to reopen this file….saving that miniscule dollars from the overall town budget DID NOT make sense….and congratulations to the rest of council for coming to their senses….now lets deal with the situation at Madill PW….you were vice-chair of PW until the election and so you know there is a major problem….if administration won’t deal with it then its the role of council to do so. There is a problem there and it has been obvious for the last 12 months….workers resigning, on stress leave and a general return of the situation that existed before Director Steve Hernen straightened things out and make PW’s Huntsville work well and become very efficient. That seems to be all going sideways and from what I have heard Administration and HR doesn’t seem to want to deal with the present situation. As a former member of council and Chair of PW’s for 22 years, I will be happy to chat with any current members of council.
Couldn’t agree more with Ray Richard’s thoughts regarding the responsibility shown by the Town of Huntsville Council when they showed sincerity and transparency in the Lock’s decision. I believe the correct decision was made. More importantly, I support the way the Council involved local citizens in this decision. We are fortunate to have an honest, responsible Town Council.
I’d like to thank all the councilors for taking a second look at the lock opening. And thank you all for ensuring that the process is working.
I would also like to thank Huntsville Doppler for their coverage of this news item. I really wonder what would have happened if we had not seen the article in Huntsville Doppler initially…RRnR