Quinte Fishing

Hi Fellas,

I'm somewhat new to the forum and to the area. Moved to Bath in July. I do however know a fair amount about municipal business and politics. First thing on the ramps that we have to understand is that they may not all be owned by the municiaplaity or the county. Believe it or not they may be owned by the feds, province or the municipality, just depends. As an example, and a guess, I bet the Glenora launch is owned by the province. The feds are desperatly trying to divest of all lanches to the lower tier goverments as the launches are simply a liability. Many of the launches are in neglect because the municipalities will not accpet the the divesture because they are a liability and need money to fix them up.

Best bet is to have a focused approach. Pick the specific launches that you want to have repaired. I suspect that all of them need work. BOQ area is not unique in this. This is a problem across the province. Then contact your local councillors and as a group is best. Make the municpality do the leg work, its thier job, trust me. They should be able to determine who owns what launch and layout the steps and organizations that would be required to be involved to make the repairs, MNR, DFO, local conservation authority etc and develop a budget that would be required to get the work done. It will not be cheap. They need to be constructed to new standards taking into account accessibility, etc, yes they have to be built to be accessible, new legistation from the province a couple of years ago, adds alot to the price tag.

It was implied in some other messages but the best thing to do is to appraoch this from an economic development persepctive. The BOQ is renowned for it's fishery and people are going to stop coming if they are damageing thier boats and trailers because of poor launches. It can't be anecdotel it must be imperical evidence. Can we show registartion numbers of tournaments over the past few years? (have they dropped) get messages/letters of support from local business, tackle shops, restaurants, resorts etc that will say they have seen a drop in business? Is there an association that runs this forum that represents its members? I'm happy to help coordinate the approach/strategy and plan but I'm new to the area and do not know all the business owners so someone would have to do that leg work. I would be happy to go and speak to the different councils and present the data once we have it. Squeaky wheel will get the grease here folks. Although a focused approached is required, so is a lot of noise. The time to act is now, the municipalities are building thier budgets as we speak! Let the politicans hear from you...........Wally (aka Mission fo Fishin)

Looks like we have the potential to make the difference. Thanks Steve, for your email to Council. Wally is absolutely right that this issue should take the stand of Economic Development. Scott, aka, west lake willow, be prepared for your help and input. Scott is currently a director on the Taste the County board. Taste the County, markets the County, to bring visitors here. I'm past president and director on the County's Chamber of Tourism and Commerce. With everyone's help, I'm confident we can get something done. Dave