LoW cottage owners assured land grab is for the right reasons

Ken Johnston
Editor

Political leaders deny that the move to annex unorganized lands on Lake of the Woods by Kenora, Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls (SNNF) and Lake of the Woods Townships is a tax grab.
A series of public meetings were held over the weekend in Morson, Sioux Narrows and Kenora to present the terms of reference for a process to look at restructuring the three municipalities boundaries to encompass all of the Canadian side of Lake of the Woods (except the Manitoba portion).
Expecting only a handful of people to attend, officials were surprised when more than 40 cottage owners showed up. LoW Town Clerk Pat Giles said that they expected lower turnout at the Morson meeting because their town annexed most of the unincorporated land in 1999. “This new proposal will only give us about 10-20 more properties on the lake and some land to the east on the mainland,” explained Giles.
SNNF reeve Jerry O’Leary told those present that “By no means are we doing this as a tax grab. Our concerns are the effects unbridled development on the lake will have for the lake’s future.” O’Leary said that the concerns were brought up at Area Services Board meetings in the Kenora area, of which SNNF has had representation on. After talking about it the two communities decided to get serious about the issue and began meeting last summer to start the process to put controls on development.
If the process goes through to completion and the three townships do annex the lake municipal building and zoning bylaws will apply to any development on the lake. “Lake of the Woods is a gem and if we want to keep it sparkling we have to control it,” said O’Leary.
Hugh O’Hare of the Lake of the Woods District Property Owners Association Inc.(LOWPDA) said that in a study that they conducted they discovered that the biggest source of pollution on Lake of the Woods is the Rainy River, something that the proposed annexation does not address.
O’Leary said that he feels that while the lake has seen unprecedented development in the past twenty years it has yet to see the tip of the iceberg. He feels that with the amount of private land for sale virtually gone there will will pressure on the government to free up more crown land for development. With that in mind they want some controls in place to ensure the vitality of the lake and its ecosystem.
Clerk Giles pointed out to the crowd that this is just a proposal and that it is in the early stages. “We have to do a cost/revenue analysis. If it is too costly we may not proceed with it.”
Robert Favoreau, a cottage owner from the north end of the lake that would fall under the jurisdiction of Kenora if the annexation proceeds, said that, “The environmental concern is B.S. It is a money issue. There is probably a billion dollars in taxable income that Kenora stands to gain.” He added that he feels Kenora is ram-rodding this process through and wondered why LoW was following suit with little gain coming from it on the south side of the lake.
Both O’Leary and Giles said they were not being ramrodded and that their townships are genuinely concerned about the future of the lake.
A concern was raised that the smaller players, LoW and SNNF were actually amalgamating with Kenora. O’Leary said that was definitely not the case.
Both LoW and SNNF officials hope that by participating in the process that uniform building codes and zoning bylaws can be used to control development on the lake and protect the environment.
No figures were available to gauge how much tax revenue would be attained once the annexation was completed. “We hope to have those numbers in October,” said Giles.
They then plan to draft those into a report and hold more public meetings in the spring. After that a final report will be prepared for June of 2004. More public meetings will be held in Sept. of 2004. If all goes according to plan a vote by each council will be held in either November or December 2004 to either ratify or reject the process. O’Leary said that if two out of the three ratify it, it will go ahead. The residents of the unorganized areas now, will also have a vote in the process, just how is not clear yet. However, U.S. citizens that own property on the lake will not be able to vote.
Giles noted that if he had property in Florida, he as a Canadian would not be able to vote on issues affecting it.
Favoreau warned that the smaller two municipalities should be concerned that this is only the beginning of a move by Kenora to take control of the entire lake. “Watchout they may just swallow you up as well.”
As for how the move would effect tax rates in the current unorganized areas, O’Leary said that he himself lived in an unorganized area before Nestor Falls amalgamated with Sioux Narrows. “My taxes only went up about $50 a year.” He also pointed out that SNNF has the lowest mill rate in the area and Giles said LoW has the second lowest in the RR District.
The next item on the restructuring committee’s schedule is to address what municipal services would be provided to the new areas and how much they will cost.
Hal Wilhite of Morson expressed concern that offering services out on the lake to more people could end up costing the existing taxpayers more money than they are now paying.
“That is why we need to do the cost analysis,” said Giles “If it turns out to be so costly we may abandon this and deal with the planning issues a different way.”
Several of those present at the meeting said that they do not want to pay much higher taxes and threatened to organize a taxpayer’s revolt in which people would refuse to pay their taxes at all. “With 75% of the tax revenue coming from us, it is clear we drive the local municipality. You do not want a revolt,” said O’Hare.