WHAT IS AHEAD FOR ALGONQUIN PARK? By Ralph Bice
From June 27, 1979
There are to be a number of meetings about the future of Algonquin Park this summer. I hope to attend at least two and no doubt will have a chance to expound my ideas though from past experience very few if any of the resolutions brought forward ever amount to much. The real decisions have already been made. The public and interested parties are given a chance to state their views, and some are well presented, but such carry little ice in the real result. (As an aside the Bancroft District Manager of the MNR once told me that was true. The ministry allowed the public to air their opinions but the decision or decisions had already been made. – Ed)
I have always thought that there are too many on the committee who live far away from the Park to really understand what is going on. When Rene Brunelle was the Minister setting up the Algonquin Park committee he promised there would be a member representing the outfitting business in the Park. This was not done and it does not sit well that people living a few hundred miles away make regulations that we have to accept. In looking over the names of the committee I see that a few have cottages in the Park. But some of the changes were not made by persons who had any knowledge of the situation.
Such a committee was needed. Years ago the superintendent could be in his office at Cache Lake and keep in touch with everything that was going on but times have changed. The road was built, airplanes came, more access points, and so many more people. Where once you could travel a couple of days and really feel you were back in the woods, now there are parties everywhere. It is hoped that they enjoy it as much as we did sixty-five years ago.
But so many things have changed and it would be asking a lot to keep Algonquin Park the way a few old timers want it and still have it the way modern day civilization wants. But it would have been better if someone from the Park had been in on those committee meetings.
Recently we have read much from the Whitney area that outboard motors are not permitted on inland lakes. Twenty-five years ago when travel by motor was getting popular the guides asked for a motor ban but were ridiculed for their suggestion that it would seriously hurt the fishing.
People in Whitney claimed their business has suffered because of that ban. Whitney has lakes not in the Park, once really good as well as Opeongo, the best lake in the Park. And they think only of fishing which is over the hill. Seems odd when we see so much of our province ravished of its natural resources and there still are people who have only one idea … money.
Our business was never very large even if it is the oldest in the Park. But banning the use of outboard motors just about finished it. Motors and boats sitting idle, but I still will fight to uphold that ban.
New regulations have been introduced but no effort to enforce them.
I am a member of the Wild Lands League and a director of the Lease Holders Association. I do not attend many meetings and usually do not agree with some of the presentations. The main topic of the lease holders asks why they have to vacate the Park when their lease expires. Some leases date back more than 70 years and all are close to the road. One reason given was that it was not fair that only a limited number of people were allowed to enjoy these summer cottages. No consideration was given when it was explained that it took a lot of work to build most of these cottages and they were there before there were boats or roads. All building material came in by train and transported by canoe and manpower. Then there are many other places where the early comers had the advantages but no mention is made of terminating the cottages there.
One news release explained the idea was to put Algonquin Park back as near like the woods it once was or as one Minister suggested “the average man’s wilderness”. Wilderness? The road through the Park is getting more like a resort every year. So many buildings that make it seem so modern, so much activity, children’s camps, camp grounds, and so many other things that it is hard to think that cottages, most of them out of sight, can make it look less like a wilderness.
We will just have to wait and see what will happen at these meetings. I am quite certain that the two main topics of discussion will be about outboard motors in the interior and the termination of private leases.
I will strongly support the regulation that prohibits outboard motors on inland lakes and just as strongly oppose the termination of private cottage leases. Since there will be lots of chance for arguments these look like interesting meetings.
Note: The termination of leases did not come into effect.
One thing does appear odd. In all the material I have studied there is not one mention of wildlife except where wolves cannot be taken by hunters in Brunton and Clyde. Not a thing about the disappearance of deer or the sad condition of the fishing. So as I said we will wait and see.
