At its December General Committee meeting, Huntsville councillors agreed with municipal staff’s recommendation not to move forward with an Environmental Assessment as requested by Transport Canada.
The request was made as part of the Town’s application for a Vessel Operation Restriction Regulation (VORR), which, if approved, would have banned motorized boats on Clark Lake. The request to submit the application was made by residents on the lake.
“This conversation has been going on for a while, and we were waiting on the reply from Transport Canada with the result of our application, so that was part of the piece that took a bit of time,” Colleen MacDonald, Operations Manager for the Town, told councillors. “They’re not approving the application; they’re asking for more information in the form of [an] Environmental Assessment to prove that potentially the use of gasoline-powered engines and higher speeds on Clark Lake would have a negative impact in the future.”
MacDonald said the municipality would have to procure the expertise to conduct the assessment. “It would require significant more staff time, etc., not just from myself but potentially from our corporate information folks.”
MacDonald also said that for such a localized area, the public meeting held by staff on the issue was well attended. “So that was all considered and put into the application,” she added. “I feel like we’ve done our due diligence in seeking the public input as well as presenting it rationally and fairly… at this point, the recommendation is that we not move forward with procuring for Environmental Assessment.”
Huntsville Mayor Nancy Alcock said she was under the understanding that the lake association representing the residents was “thinking of raising the money to pay for the Environmental Assessment and that it would have to go through the Town in order to carry it out.” She asked if there were any discussions around that concept. MacDonald said there were discussions but nothing concrete. Alcock wanted to know if the group “somehow miraculously come up with $8,000 to support the Environmental Assessment, it probably wouldn’t be too late to carry it out at that time. Would it? Or does this completely close the file, and we’d have to start over again?”
MacDonald said she could indicate to Transport Canada that instead of withdrawing the application, the municipality would prefer to pause it. Alcock noted that given the amount of work that has gone into the application by all parties, she would support pausing it rather than withdrawing it.
In the end, the committee agreed not to pursue an Environmental Assessment. It also directed staff to pause the application rather than withdraw it should the group of residents seeking the VORR be able to come up with the money to fund the assessment.
You can find the staff report HERE (pdf).
Related
Municipal staff moving forward with formal consultation to ban gas-powered motorboats on Clark Lake
Council hears from those who oppose attempts to ban gas-powered motorboats on Clark Lake
Clark Lake residents seek a ban on gas-powered motorboats
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Do you really need an environmental assessment to tell you that motor boats negatively effect any lake envrionment? Gas and oil in the lake is inevitable. So is increased erosion of the shoreline. And destruction of habitat for shore nesting birds is also a given. Also introduction of invasive species is a big risk. Then there is the noise that goes along with any type of motor boat. Clark Lake looks pretty small so any boats will have big impacts.