Quinte Fishing

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PETERBOROUGH - A group of MPs looking into the future of the Trent-Severn Waterway will likely recommend a user fee that would apply to cottagers, permanent residents, day users and visitors.

The idea was discussed at a meeting of stakeholders, mostly business owners from the four federal ridings that comprise about 90 per cent of the TSW, at Trent University’s Wenjack Theatre Friday afternoon.

The meeting was not open to the media.

Simcoe North MP Bruce Stanton, the meeting chairman, confirmed afterwards that the user fee concept was discussed and that the MPs will likely recommend the measure to the federal minister of environment later this summer.

“There are a massive number of people who visit and live on the Trent-Severn Waterway from which there is currently no financial contribution,” he said.

“We have recreational boaters who pay for lockage passes and fees, but a great number of users of our lakes and rivers and some of the built canal system may never go through a lock, and yet they still derive a tangible benefit from it with no additional fees. We have 386 kilometres of waterway and you’ve got lakes and rivers on which there could be literally thousands of users.”

Quinte West Mayor John Williams was also at the meeting. Williams is spearheading a group of municipal leaders opposed to the cuts.

“I think it (user fees) is something we should look at ... instead of cutting services along the waterway,” he said Monday.

Williams and a group of other municipal leaders are meeting in Haliburton Thursday.

“While nothing has been decided, hopeful we can come up with some other ideas,” said Williams.

Like other branches of the federal government, the TSW is faced “with some deficit reduction issues,” Stanton said. “The initial proposal was that we were going to find some of those savings by reducing service in terms of the number of days and hours of operation on not only the Trent-Severn but on the Rideau system as well.

“We were able to forestall that for 2012, but it really is just a short time commitment to give us the chance as MPs to speak to people who have a vital interest in the economic benefit of this waterway and toss some ideas around as to how we as MPs can go back and make recommendations to the minister to say, ‘Here is a way that we cannot interrupt service for 2013, ’14 and ’15 and down the line.”

Stanton said the group doesn’t want to see cuts to service on the waterway. “We believe it’s too important. But we also accept that the government has its fiscal responsibility as well to the taxpayers of Canada, so we have got to find a way to come up with some creative ideas on how we can have the government realize its fiscal objective and at the same time not reduce service on the Trent-Severn.”

In addition to Stanton, Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro, Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MP Barry Devolin and Northumberland-Quinte West MP Rick Norlock were at the meeting. Del Mastro left shortly before the meeting ended and could not be reached for comment.

“I think we all left with a positive impression,” said Peterborough County Warden J. Murray Jones, who was at the meeting and said he supports the user-fee concept.

“The meeting gave the message loud and clear to the federal members that everyone from the whole cross section of the region is extremely concerned about the impacts of cutbacks to the waterway.

“The secret is coming up with some added revenue sources to keep the service vibrant. The waterway is the ribbon of life through the region and we can’t cut it any thinner than it is right now.”

He said fees would help decrease the deficit and increase revenue.

According to Jones, fees were bantered around the meeting and they got a lot of support.

“ A business plan would have to be developed to take those ideas into consideration and I think there is ever possibility that they would work,” he said.

“I agree with the concept. If you want to ride your motorcycle on the road or ride your snowmobile on the trail, you have to pay a fee. I think a user fee would work and if that’s what it takes then I am all for it.”

Friday’s meeting, Stanton said, was the first step in a process that will end with a recommendation to the government some time in August. Between now and then, each MP will hold meetings in their respective ridings, he said. “We are going to be reaching out to the public on this.”