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Illegal channel irks cottagers

Residents fear Lake Winnipeg marsh will be taken over for private marina

By: Bruce Owen

Posted: 08/20/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

ROBERT TINKER PHOTO / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES Enlarge Image

Equipment works on shoreline of channel on east side of Lake Winnipeg in May.

High above the south basin of Lake Winnipeg, the latest threat to the province's largest waterway comes into view.

A boat channel, dug illegally last winter, zigzags along the edge of a marsh on the east side of the lake.

Enlarge Image

The Selkirk and District Planning Area Board issued permit for channel without an environmental review. (BRUCE.OWEN@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

Land swap raises beach access fears

What's the plan?

That's the question some east-side Lake Winnipeg cottagers have after learning of a land swap the Rural Municipality of St. Clements made with a Traverse Bay man about two years ago.

The municipality wanted land in Grand Marais for the new Grand Marais Heritage Centre, built in partnership with the Grand Beach and Area Development Corp. The project recently received $240,000 from the Manitoba government.

The municipality swapped land it owned at Beaconia Beach to get the land at Grand Marais.

What the Traverse Bay man plans to do with the lakefront property at Beaconia Beach is unknown. He has not returned a call from the Free Press.

St. Clements Mayor Steve Strang is on vacation and unavailable.

Area cottagers say the land could be subdivided into new cottage lots. If that happens, the public could be denied access to the waterfront. It's been a public beach for decades, including a popular spot for nudists, who have complained to the Manitoba government.

The province has responded that it will only discharge a caveat on the land once an agreement is reached with the municipality that there be an area for public parking and unrestricted access to the beach area.

The province would also retain ownership of a strip of beachfront.

Below, a couple of kayakers in the marsh gaze up at the circling plane.

If the worst fears of some come true, this marsh could one day be off-limits to paddlers and instead be the entrance to a large private marine development where each cottage has a dock and boat.

Standing in the way of that is the Eastern Beaches Conservation Coalition (EBCC), a group of cottagers who say such a development has no place in such a fragile environment.

"What's the effect on drainage? What's the effect on wildlife? What's the effect on the lake?" EBCC spokesman David Crabb said Thursday. "What about public access? We don't know any of those answers."

The canal now sits empty of docks and boats -- it hasn't been used all summer -- because the province issued a stop-work order on the project after residents complained. The mouth of the channel where it meets the lake was ordered plugged, but recent storms and high waves washed it away.

It will now be subject to a provincial environmental review, but the damage to the marsh has already been done.

A bald eagle that had nested in the area has not been seen for a while.

"Bird's nests were just mowed down," Crabb said.

Crabb said the EBCC's goal is to return the marsh to its natural state and maintain public access to Beaconia Beach.

The EBCC invited the Free Press on an aerial tour of the Beaconia area Thursday to show how much the 4.5-metre-wide canal has altered the marsh, which is immediately north of where the Brokenhead River flows into Lake Winnipeg.

From the air, much of the tree line along the east side of the marsh has been bulldozed and covered over with what was dug out to make the canal. Where willows and cattails once thrived it's as dead as the moon.

It also doesn't appear to end anywhere other than a public road.

Robert Rettie, owner of Redquest Developments in Alberta, told the Free Press several weeks ago he had the channel built to better protect his two watercraft. Rettie has a summer residence nearby.

He also said a cottage development on farmland he owns may not be viable.

"Who knows down the road," he added.

The question no one can answer is how Rettie dug the channel without first getting a provincial environmental licence, a process that also requires public input.

Rettie did get a development permit from the Selkirk and District Planning Area Board and a letter of advice from the federal department of Fisheries and Oceans, but neither replaced the environmental licence.

Crabb said the Selkirk and District Planning Area Board should have ensured the channel met each stage of approval before issuing the permit.

"The Selkirk and District Planning Area Board didn't only drop the ball -- they ignored the ball altogether," Crabb said.

Lloyd Talbot, manager of the Selkirk and District Planning Area Board, was unavailable.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 20, 2010 A3

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