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Wednesday, October 29, 2008 • PARRY SOUND NORTH STAR - 7

BY EVAN FRENCH North Star Staff

Seguin Township council has purchased land from the Ministry of Natural Resources to expand the Christie landfill site.

Michelle Hendry, director of public works, said the municipality payed $1,000 for the land, which councillor Doug Sainsbury said is “worth a million dollars”.

Councillor Bruce Gibbon said the chunk adds more life on to the current landfill.

“It’s an expansion of the current footprint.”

Gibbon speculated that, although the land will be very useful to the township in the near future, further down the road it may not be as important. After attending the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference, Gibbon told council that, in the future, “we could be out of the waste management business as a municipality”.

The council lor was talking about a concept called “extended producer responsibility” (EPR). In the future, if the province gets it’s way, manufacturers could be held responsible for the amount of waste that goes into landfills. The province is planning to implement a “waste diversion agency” which would force manufacturers to pay half of the cost of municipal recycling programs, and cut waste going to landfill in half in the next five years.

But even more trash could be diverted if the province decides to follow a European model, which is based on a “polluter pays” concept. Producers would be responsible for trashing certain products once they’re worn out. They would either have to take the products back, or pay full-price to have them recycled.

Gibbon said municipalities are currently eligible for funding to run blue box programs, which help divert some trash from the landfills. He said, if EPR were to be implemented to the fullest extent, it’s conceivable that sometime down the road manufacturers will be required to make sure all of their product-packaging is disposed of properly, without municipal involvement.

M ayo r D av i d Co n n s a i d i f manufacturers were required to do that, it’s likely the cost of waste disposal will be put on the consumer, one way or another.

“I’ll tell you the cost of that tube of toothpaste is going to go up,” he said.

Gibbon said, although it’s an interesting idea, it’s unlikely to be implemented in the near future, so the Christie site will be a busy place for some time to come.

Seguin expands landfill

Seguin couple’s access to Lane Lake revokedBY EVAN FRENCH Beacon Star Staff

After a dispute with neighbours, a couple will lose the right to keep their floating dock in Lane Lake.

Despite the fact they don’t own shoreline property, the couple have been taking advantage of a municipal exception to use the dock as their water access.

This month, the township cancelled a license of occupation, which was granted in April of 2006, and allowed the property owners to keep their dock in the lake.

The exception for the dock was made for previous owners, an elderly couple, who neighbours cooperated with to give them access to the lake.

In a memo dated Oct. 14, Seguin Fire Chief Dave Thompson said numerous issues have come up over the past two years, since the agreement was signed over to Pamela Hunter, who bought the property in August of 2006.

According to the memo, Hunter and her husband George erected a canvas boat port on the dock, and the chief building official ordered they dismantle it.

Shortly after that, a raft was constructed and placed in the lake to service the Hunter property, which caused a great deal of concern among neighbouring property owners.

To avoid being ordered to remove the raft, the Hunters were able to license it as a vessel by attaching an outboard motor to it.

The Hunters have since put their property up for sale, which has residents worried the license of occupation could change hands again.

Two weeks ago, a petition was submitted

to council, which was signed by eight of 12 lake-front property owners on Lane lake.

Wade Perkins is one of the Hunter’s neighbours, and one of the residents who signed the petition asking that the license be rescinded. He said he thinks the other petition signers are happy with council’s decision.

“We didn’t want other back-lot owners to think they’d have access to the water,” he said. “And we wanted the new owners to be clear on what they were buying.”

He said his first mistake was letting the issue go at the beginning.

“We were nice,” he said. “We let him take advantage of us.”

He said he’s since seen a different side of Hunter, and didn’t like what he saw.

George Hunter said he was disappointed with council’s decision.

“We have never done anything to contravene the lease,” he said.

He said the idea to buy the raft came about because the sun didn’t hit his dock until late in the afternoon, and he and his wife wanted to do some sunbathing. He said he spoke to Perkins about it, and the two had agreed it was a good plan.

“He said he thought it was a wonderful idea,” said Hunter.”And we agreed that anybody on the lake could use it,

that’s just the kind of people we are.” He said after it became apparent that

some people on the lake didn’t approve of the raft, he went to the Coast Guard to see what he could do about it.

“They told me if you get a motor on it, it would have to be licensed as a vessel,” he said. “Lots of people do it.”

He said he’s used the raft as a vessel about 12 times this year for fishing and sunbathing.

The dispute has neighbours calling law enforcement officials to investigate, Hunter said.

“We don’t get time to go out on the lake, because we’re busy waiting for the OPP

to show up at the door,” he said.Council’s decision gives the Hunters a

total of 12 months to get their stuff out of the lake.

Hunter said he’s had every level of government knocking on his door about his raft and dock, and he’s had enough. He said the couple, who moved up from Aliston, came to Seguin for the peace and quiet, but got more than they’d bargained for.

“I want to move away,” he said. “It’s nothing but a witch hunt.”

Seguin Township council will discuss the move at its next public meeting Monday night.