- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor
Early this morning Mayor Janice Jackson of the Town of South Bruce Peninsula (TSBP) took both proponents and opponents of the construction of a retaining wall on Lakeshore Blvd. in Sauble Beach by surprise with a post on her Facebook page.
“Following yesterday’s Council decision, our legal team received a letter from Eco Justice (lawyer for environmental groups) advising they intend to seek a Court injunction to stop us as they have objections to our safety work. We will step back, address their concerns and sort this out with the goal of completing this work in the Spring, before tourist season is upon us.”
Just yesterday a special Council meeting ended with a resolution to move forward with the roadside work as soon as possible, after an in camera discussion there advice was provided from the Town's legal team. That advice, Jackson confirmed this morning in an interview with CTV's Scott Miller, included the recommendation that the Town not enter into consultations with the Saugeen First Nation. “We intend no disrespect at all,” Jackson said in the interview.
Jackson's Facebook post goes on. “We didn’t expect the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) to demand consultation, as we have never previously consulted them on roadside work on Lakeshore Boulevard. We were advised that the cost of consultation to our taxpayers would be between $6,000.00 to $10,000.00 with no guarantee they would approve our work. SON has cited the land claim as the reason we must consult. Our legal team strongly advised us to carry on with this project as we have no legal obligation to consult and that doing so would be precedent-setting and potentially cause harm to our land claim litigation. We have always desired to be good neighbours; however, we must follow our legal advice, protect our community and execute this safety work.”
“Maintaining a safe parking width on Lakeshore has been undertaken by our Public Works staff each year, until just 3 years ago. In that short period of time, vegetation has encroached upon the shoulder of Lakeshore reducing the ability for most vehicles to safely park far enough off the road,” says Jackson's post. That work, she said in her CTV interview, would involve cutting “two or three feet” into the dune at most.
In his verbal report to the Grey Sauble Conservation Authority (GSCA) board, Environmental Planning Coordinator Andy Sorensen said the cut into the dune would be “5 to 6 feet at most”. At that meeting, the board approved an exception to their policy prohibiting development on “dynamic beach hazard”, and the GSCA permit for the work was approved with excavation into the toe of the dune “to a maximum of 7 metres from the current edge of asphalt to the Lake side of the retaining wall.”
Opponents of the work, dozens of whom gathered at the beach this morning, say that the markers placed in preparation for the excavation show that some parts of the dune to be removed are at least 12 feet in depth and currently twice as high as the planned metre-high retaining wall. They cite a letter from the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation and an independent report by Professional Geoscientist Peter Zuzek and Dr. Mary-Louise Byrne, Professor and Chair of the Geography and Environment Studies Department at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Mayor Jackson, for her part, says “At the expense of our taxpayers, we were required to hire a Biologist to determine if there would be any negative impacts on the dunes as a result of this work. At the expense of our taxpayers we had to hire an engineering firm to design the low retaining wall in a way that it too would not harm the dunes, keep the vegetation from further encroaching on the shoulder of the road and would stand up over time.”
She goes on to say “staff and Council have debated many different options including one-way traffic and parallel parking however increasing the shoulder width of Lakeshore is the safest, most logical and least of a departure from what residents and visitors are accustomed to.”
Those who are opposed to the project, who include local residents and business-owners, are asking for a public meeting with traffic planner to discuss parking and traffic-flow alternatives.
In researching the Sauble issue, we offered to publish any statement Mayor Jackson wished to make on OwenSoundHub.org, but she declined. She has made her statements through her Facebook posts. This one says “After lengthy collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) and the Grey Sauble Conservation Authority, we were given the green light to move forward.”
A media spokesperson for MECP sent us these statements today:
"The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks recommended that the town consult with relevant organizations for direction of how to complete these works and limit impacts to the dune ecosystem generally.
The ministry also recommended that the town consult with all other agencies that regulate activities in dune habitat and have any permits/authorizations required in place prior to starting any works.
The Town continues to seek feedback from the Ministry regarding their responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act with respect to this project. No application for an authorization under the Act has been made by the Town and correspondingly no application is under consideration at this time."
Mayor Jackson has indicated that the Town plans to complete the work in early spring; SON says they will continue to take actions to ensure consultation with Saugeen First Nnation is completed and consent is established before the project proceeds. Environmentalists and some Sauble business owners say they will pursue injunctions and litigation, or put themselves in front of bulldozers, to stop the Town's reshaping of the dunes permanently.
