Election promises have started.
Huntsville mayoral candidate Scott Morrison officially launched his campaign at Canvas Brewing Co. on May 19 before a packed crowd, unveiling an ambitious vision to redevelop the area commonly known as Brendale Square and permanently address its longstanding flooding issues.
Among the biggest applause lines of the evening came when Morrison vowed that, if elected mayor, the troubled commercial area would no longer flood.
“I’m getting rid of Beer Lake,” Morrison told supporters to loud applause, referencing the nickname residents have given the flood-prone plaza after a widely shared photo by local resident Randy Mitson showing a canoe outside the former Beer Store location during high water.
“If anybody knows me, they know that if I bring this to the table, I’ve already done mountains and mountains of hours of work on this,” Morrison said. “I’m ready to do this. I will do this. I will revitalize Brendale Square.”
The site, located in a low-lying section of Huntsville, has long struggled with recurring flooding during spring freshets and major rainfall events. In addition to water issues, the area has faced commercial vacancies, aging infrastructure and environmental concerns tied to the influence of a former landfill and a former gas station property.
Planning reports over the years have repeatedly identified the need for extensive remediation and flood mitigation work before any large-scale redevelopment could occur.
Morrison acknowledged those challenges but said he believes the project is achievable.
“It’s been way too long that Brendale Square has looked the way it has,” he said. “It’s been a blight on our town. It is one of the most important pieces of our town, and it needs to be better.”
Previous efforts to negotiate a purchase of the property have failed, but Morrison said he has already had extensive discussions with the landowner and stakeholders and believes progress can finally be made.
“I can only step so far as a councillor and as a candidate, but I’ve had enough conversations to know that they’re ready to work with me,” he said. “One of them actually said they will only work with me on making Brendale Square what it needs to be for the town.”
Morrison also pointed to the investments already made in the area by the Koncan family through Canvas Brewing Co and its event space, saying local businesses deserve certainty and protection from recurring flood damage.
He singled out Dan Barkwell, owner of Moose Delaney’s Sports Bar, who attended the launch event.
“Dan had hair when I first met him — he had a full head of hair,” Morrison joked. “Every spring, he loses a few more pieces because he can’t sleep. He’s wondering if he’s going to have water in his business, and man, that’s not fair.”
He also referenced the nearby hardware store and the repeated stress local businesses face during flood season.
“Every year this happens, and I can tell you that I’ve done some work and I’m ready to fix it. I am going to fix it,” Morrison said.
During the event, Morrison shared an early conceptual sketch of what a redeveloped Brendale Square could potentially become. While emphasizing that any final design would require community input, he outlined ideas including green space, a public skating rink, a farmers’ market, a splash pad and enhanced gathering areas intended to create a more vibrant gateway into downtown Huntsville.
He added that he believes much of the redevelopment and remediation work could be funded through outside grants and brownfield redevelopment programs, minimizing the financial burden on taxpayers.
“This is about building something Huntsville can be proud of,” Morrison said.
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First we had Ghandi and now King Canute of Brendale Square. The cost would horrendous and this is just an empty pre election soundbite.
This sounds like exactly what Huntsville needs! Everyone always wants more parking, a splash pad, more green space and somewhere for kids to be kids in the downtown area. River Mill park is nice but it no longer exclusively meets the needs of this growing community. And the solution to the flooding that Scott is proposing has worked in other communities, so why not here? Especially if it’s at little to no cost to the taxpayers! Seems like a win-win to me.
Scott, thank you for coming on here with your thoughtful replies. Your voting record shows that you are indeed concerned with all the other things that need to be addressed in Huntsville, and this visionary plan to extend the downtown core to include Brendale Square is exciting and innovative. I hope the people of Huntsville are willing to see that too – it’s time to shake things up with new ideas!
I’m with George Hines and Allan Markle on this one.
My father remembered it as literally a cat tail and muskrat filled swamp, from the river all the way up to where the little plaza with Family Place restaurant now is.
Amazing what we filled in. Also amazing what we filled it in with!!
Stopping the flooding should be a feasible thing. Some check valves and a small storm water lift station combined with raising John Street and making it into an effective dike would stop the flooding as long as it all worked and John street was made high enough. The town would have to maintain this infrastructure rigidly and the lift pumps would have to be sized to handle spring run off and the worst rain event possible. Like the Dutch do in Holland but at least here we do not have to contend with sea level rise..
Would like to thank everybody for their comments. The Doppler has a policy that I can only respond twice in a post, for very good reasons that I support. So unfortunately, this will be a long response while I try to address the concerns because I do take them very seriously. So here’s my long response.
I appreciate all of the thoughtful comments here—there are valid concerns being raised about cost, priorities, property ownership, environmental challenges, and whether this is even achievable. Those are exactly the questions that need to be asked.
Let me be clear: this is not about ignoring our core responsibilities like roads, infrastructure, and fiscal discipline. Those remain priorities. This is about addressing a long-standing problem in one of the most important and visible parts of our downtown that has been an eyesore—and a recurring source of stress for local businesses—for decades.
I’m under no illusion that this is simple. The history of the site, the soil conditions, flooding, and private ownership are all real challenges. But they are not new challenges—and they are not unsolvable.
What’s been missing is the will to bring partners together and pursue solutions that have worked in other communities dealing with brownfield and flood-prone lands.
To be equally clear on cost: I would not support a plan that places a significant burden on Huntsville taxpayers. My focus is on leveraging external funding—federal and provincial grants, brownfield and climate adaptation programs, accommodation tax revenues, and private partnerships—to cover the bulk of capital costs. That work has already started at a preliminary level.
This is also not about prioritizing one area over others—it’s about unlocking an opportunity.
Done right, this project can:
Address long-standing flooding issues
Improve much-needed downtown parking
Add green space, trees, and public gathering areas
Create space for youth and community use
Open the door to potential housing opportunities
Support existing local businesses and attract new activity
In short, it’s about turning a problem property into a community asset we can all be proud of.
I respect that not everyone will agree, and I welcome that discussion. But I believe Huntsville can tackle big challenges without putting undue pressure on taxpayers—and this is exactly the kind of project where we should aim higher.
Lastly, if I’m lucky enough to be elected, this project will be done with a massive amount of public consultation from a very diverse group of Huntsville residents. This project only works if it becomes a revitalization that the public can truly get behind. Thank you for your time everybody. And feel free to reach out to me directly if you would like to have any further discussion about it, I’m always happy to chat and take feedback.
We have a value for value issue Scott.
If the town/district cannot even sufficiently maintain potholes, line demarcation, crosswalks and stops within town-proper (forgetting elsewhere) having allowed standards to decay to a point of literal nonfunction, representing a massive liability for auto insurance policy holders and other stake holders. While also having stranded rotting housing projects, and other major projects with ballooning costs totalling hundreds of millions of dollars, juxtaposed against massive service cuts, repeat tax increases multiple times the rate of inflation, one could easily argue that we should be adding a high speed Monorail and Space Port to the Brendal Square while we are at it.
We have a spending and bureaucrat/consultant caused crisis in Muskoka that needs attention. Get government out of the way. When you’re able to demonstrate you can maintain basic infrastructure at a reasonable cost move onto to other issues.
Let the private market fix the Brendale Square.
I’m reminded of the old saying “ I’ve got some swampland in Florida to sell you” . All I can see coming are more massive property tax increases on the back of the last several massive tax increases under his watch.
My gramps said that a certain character used to trap rats down in the swamp. For years it was a convenient dump. At times the people in the area had to put up with the stench of burning refuse when somebody sparked the mess up.
When the contractors contacted Ray West to dig some ‘test holes’ they asked him what he thought he might find. He said he’d find garbage, old batteries, lots of sawdust and chips, old tires, car parts and more garbage. That’s pretty much what he found.
When a local business man was putting a store down on John street, they all came in one morning to find a lot of the fill they had drawn in, along with a bite out of the property that was there yesterday. Gone! Just slid away. Today’s legend.
There we a couple of service stations along the upper road and we know there was fuel that leaked into the soil. A worker found that the supposed ‘explosion proof’ bulbs in the pump station weren’t as advertised. The turning on of the light was accompanied by a rather significant kaboom..
I’m sure the intent is good, but it’s been mentioned that these are all private properties. The purchase of the contested parking area (free vote or ‘strong mayor’ ?) would give the town a reason to make repairs to the purchased land (if that’s Mr. Morrison’s intention), but the tying into the upgraded and now flood free parking lot(?) would still be the responsibility of the businesses. Or not??
If this had been a plan, Lord knows enough rock has been blasted out of sites within the town to fill ‘Beer Lake’ for good. Although that rock disappears rather quickly. It has value. Is that value deducted from the cost of the buildings? Just curious. Plus there’s no telling what the weight of a few feet of granite on top of a few feet of sawdust, snail snort, wood chips, and loon doo, could do.
Bet you might find a good number of other people who have flooding problems within the town of Huntsville. Will Mr. Morrison be compiling a list to be dealt with in turn. If not, why not? Why is this spot and these shop owners special?
Look around Mr. Morrison: The old Empire lot. Empty main street stores. A new Library. Sidewalks that can induce seasickness. No place to park in town if you work in town. Streets with potholes that leave one rattled. There’s a litany of jobs to be dealt with.
But ‘beer lake’ seems to be the only thing on the ‘fix it list’. Worthy of a major mayoralty get together and announcement. How come?
I think this is a fabulous idea!! Hopefully it includes lots of trees and shaded areas to sit. 👏
Scott, if you can stop the rain from falling out of the sky, you can definitely solve the problem
Our forefathers realized a long time ago that this piece of land was undeveopeable. Photos from the past will show it truly being a Wetland area.
As well the sub-soil in very unstable and when the original A &P was built developers realised they could not build on the the property without using H Piles. I’m not sure how many units were built with this method but the Home Hardware building still shows the impact of hydro static water pressure and failure of the underlying soil.
If you could solve the problem how much of the tax payers money are you prepared to spend?
On the other hand, how about increasing the roads budget and address the deteriorating roads in Huntsville. Center Street, a lone needs a Million dollar Face-lift. The the roads department in general needs education in how and not to construct roads properly.
Any way, good luck with your agenda, but I think your enthusiasm could be directed to the Infrastructure that we use everyday to enjoy the best place to live in.
Making promises that he cant keep. Brendan Square is privately owned and does not fall under town controlled property. The problem is the river is higher because the dams put in place forces wayer levels higher. It’s a century old problem that persists because of poor planning by the community.
Dams were put in place to create artificial depths in the watershed. Flooding permanently parts of fairy lake. We dont have ferry traffic on the waters anymore so why the continuation of this artificial water level?
Good Luck with your endeavours, Mr Morrison. Could this exploratory proposal be discussed at current council and committees? ( and Muskoka Watershed Council?) If it can be done as you propose, I wonder why it wasn’t looked into previously if only to reduce the risks from the spring freshet. The cautionary note from a very good book about water :”Water Always Wins”
Hi Colette, this is a great question and one that I have put a lot of thought into. From the research I have done and the people I have talked to, there are a few things that need to be done.
On the side of the plaza where the Canvas Brewery is, the grade would need to be raised up a certain amount to prevent flooding in that area.
There is also a catch basin over near the old beer store. I need to do a bit more research, as I’m not an engineer, but I have been led to believe that a backflow preventer or something similar could be installed here that would have a significant impact.
There is also a storm drain on the other side of John Street. A check valve needs to be installed in this storm drain, according to an engineer.
I believe that these three things would go toward eliminating the flooding problem in that area.
I also mentioned, in my presentation at my launch party, the use of Coffer Dams over by Moose Delaney’s. They were used in South Muskoka this year at a couple of different places and they worked really well. They would prevent the water from getting into the buildings that seem to be most affected during flood season.
Lastly, if all of this doesn’t work, there is another measure that can be taken. One of the major choke points is at the swing bridge. Because of the pillars, the water doesn’t flow under the bridge at the same rate that it arrives. This causes a lot of water to back up and is a part of the problem. There are other places with similar problems and I’ve seen that they use a portable pump system. They are smaller pumps on trailers, sort of looks like a wood splitter. This keeps the water flow at a level that prevents flooding on one side but doesn’t cause issues on the other.
This would, of course, involve coordination with the the ministry and a lot of careful thought. But I do believe that the solution is there for us, and that we owe it to the business owners in that area.
We would have to make sure that this is done right, of course, and done by people much smarter than me.
How will you be preventing flooding in that area.?