Geoff Ross with Muskoka Watershed Council was before Huntsville’s General Committee last month, asking for financial support and participation in the formation of an Integrated Watershed Management Plan, which would encompass a coordinated approach toward managing the watershed across 13 municipalities.
The plan would involve “integrating multi-disciplinary goals for planning, infrastructure, climate action, flood management, and other challenges of the 21st Century,” according to his presentation.
“There are a number of seriously concerning trends we’re seeing in our watershed today and… the current forms of management or land use planning are simply not up to dealing with these trends. This comes largely from climate change and climate change is giving us a world which is quite different from the world we have experienced in the past,” said Ross, who told council he had previously worked for the Ministry of the Environment and learned from experience the importance of dealing with negative environmental trends as they are discovered rather than being reactive.
He said the Muskoka Watershed Council (MWC) has been actively promoting integrated watershed management “as the most promising response to deal with the problems we’re facing. We’re not alone in doing this. The Muskoka Watershed Advisory Group appointed by the Province of Ontario, largely as a result of the 2019 flood, recommended Integrated Watershed Management. It’s referred to in the Provincial Policy Statement and many jurisdictions across Canada and the world are using Integrated Watershed Management (IWM) but not as yet in Muskoka.”
He told councillors it’s a project needed to preserve Muskoka’s ecosystem which is the basis for Muskoka’s economy. He said MWC, made up of volunteers, is in a unique position to partner with municipalities in getting an Integrated Watershed Management Plan in place.
“Once an IWM-based watershed management plan is in place, our role… will likely diminish. We are a community of volunteers speaking to science,” he said, adding that MWC would not be the administrator of the plan. Who would administer the plan would be determined as the plan is formalized.
Deputy Mayor Dan Armour questioned whether it would be better to ask for funding from the District of Muskoka since it is a district-wide initiative. Ross said they want all municipalities to be involved and they need all municipalities to pitch in.
A request for $15,000 was made. Councillor Scott Morrison suggested that the funds could come from the Town’s portion of the Huntsville Municipal Accommodation Tax so the burden does not fall on the taxpayer, noting that he supports the initiative and that without the natural environment, there is no tourism. “I could justify that money coming out of the MAT tax because it does affect tourism. If our lakes are full of blue-green algae no one is going to come to visit.”
Staff told the committee to include it in the 2024 draft budget first and then see if it would qualify under the accommodation tax.
Councillor Helena Renwick said she also supports the initiative, which she referred to as imperative. “If we don’t have clean lakes, we’re not going to get people here anymore, so I would highly support that.”
Armour said that while he does not disagree with the initiative, he’d hate to be the only municipality to fund it. Huntsville Mayor Nancy Alcock said she understood the concern but said she did know that Lake of Bay and Bracebridge “are incredibly supportive… and District.”
Councillor Cory Clarke also questioned why MWC wouldn’t go to the District first but said he agreed with the importance of the lakes and supports the project, although he’d rather see the money come from the accommodation tax.
“I think we need to lead by example here,” said Councillor Jason FitzGerald.
Councillor Bob Stone said he agrees that the natural environment is the area’s economy and needs to be protected. “I’m just thinking that there’s no definite use for this money yet. It’s just ‘hey let’s make a pot of money and then we’ll decide how to disseminate it,’ so I’m not all in.” He also noted that the MAT money isn’t just “a giant pot of money. We want to use some of that for housing… and many other great projects too so it’s not just an endless pot that we can keep taking from.”
Councillor Dione Schumacher said she’d be in favour of supporting the project at $15,000 this year if it comes from the accommodation tax and at $10,000 (initially suggested by the Mayor to get approval around the table) if it comes from the property tax. “I don’t want to necessarily dip in too much, as Councillor Stone said we don’t exactly know where it’s going but I do know it has touched our community and my little lake of Longs Lake in Utterson has blue-green algae… so it is there and that is one of our public beaches that we need to protect and I want to see the work done to be able to combat that.”
Alcock said, “MWC is the only organization that’s been doing research on algal blooms since we started seeing them in Muskoka.” Renwick again said the project is very important, she suggested giving MWC $20,000 but said she would support $15,000. “We should be leaders on this…”
In the end, a majority of councillors voted in favour of setting aside $15,000 for the Muskoka Watershed Council as part of the 2024 budget discussions.
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