Lake simcoe parking

Hey just wanted to make everyone aware that Ramara effective February 1st, 2022 has made all parking on side streets west of highway 12 from Orillia to the Brock boundary line illegal. Certain areas mostly abutting the lake accesses are fully prohibited. As much as I can find thus far is they will be issuing residents two permits per household and those will be car license plate specific. Other parking permits are possible for the areas not prohibited but they are asking $5 per hour.

So just for information purposes if you fish the eastern side of the lake parking at any of the accessible points is going to be a nightmare.

Open season on fisherman and family.

Arnie

I don't share their feelings, but most people in Simcoe Muskoka hate people from Toronto since they literally trashed the place in 2020. That's why all the counties are blanket banning non-resident parking.

As a resident from Barrie, I can't even launch my boat at Innisfil anymore because only Innisfil residents are allowed to launch there. I have to pick between that horrible Tiffin launch, and the paid Barrie launch - that's it! Well, you can also pay Sandy Cove marine $50 to launch your boat at their launch as well.

And since Friday Harbour doesn't have a launch, which is absolutely bonkers for the money the slips cost, I'm kinda stuck using public launches. Paid Barrie launch for $17.70 a launch it is

The GTA on Lake Ontario isn't as crazy. Whitby launch is free, has tons of parking, and even facilities on-site for you. Who'd ever have thought Simcoe-Muskoka would be worse than the GTA?

Dang I am not even from Toronto....live in Acton....I am the guy that picks up a lot of garbage when I see it.....could it be a local that dropped it.....absolutely.......slobs live everwhere.....I detest when someone says it must be someone from Toronto or a non-local.

What is to stop a local from dumping his/her garbage every week because they want to have no parking.

They should police the real problem and fix that......not put a bandaid on something that I believe is a shot in the dark at our expense.

I get it. But I can tell you, the greenspaces were overrun with people in 2020, camping the greenspaces, BBQing in the forest, leaving trash heaps. Parking down residential roads from BMWs, Mercedes, Range Rovers, farther than the eye could see. That never happened before 2020. If we want to be all white-knight about it, it could be Toronto, could be anyone.

Generally, though, people just got p##### and decided to lock their towns down. Nobody wants the traffic in their communities. The reason a lot of these people up here are here is that they didn't want to be in high-traffic city areas.

The ministry of natural resources and local parks and services also got involved after the tramping of the greenspaces. That effort wasn't from the residents. There are signs all over now places like Wilkin's walk that bar people from exiting the trail because of 'Sensitive ecosystems.' Once the MNR gets involved, it's out of locals hands.

Again, I'm not saying I agree with them, I'm just telling you what is happening.

reelinginthebigone: As an aside here, ...are you a resident of Barrie? If yes, why are you paying to launch at a Municipal launch?

The tiffin launch is free. However, the tiffin launch is a deathtrap for boats over 23 feet and fibreglass.

The main Barrie launch at the harbour is not. Nobody there has ever told me Barrie residents launch free, and there is no sign signifying that, so I'm assuming they don't make the exception. I'd like to be told otherwise

people from outside the city (like really outside the city) consider anything part of the GTA just "Toronto" even if it isn't close to Toronto. If you live within the GTA bubble you're from Toronto to people who don't live anywhere near the city.

This is true. There is a very much them vs us mentality in people who don't live in the GTA/Toronto.

every community regardless of size has its really good people and a small fraction of pigs. all relative to population size

I do not have the solution for this, but shutting off the outside world is not the answer imo

Green spaces over run? Sounds like a good thing people are getting out and enjoying the outdoors.

It’s pretty generalized slam to Toronto, if you can even blame a city for leaving trash where you live! Leaving garbage behind is careless, every adult knows that - no matter where you come from.

You want to get away from high traffic areas? Go live near Kenora or Timmins - Southern Ontario is dense. Toronto is the engine that runs Canada, be thankful you live here, and benefit from it.

These parking restrictions are just another municipal jab to try and make more money.

These by-laws are not doing anything to protect the environment or fish species - just making it harder and more costly to access the lake. People will get around it - park far and ride in.

It’s like the MNR allowing people to print their own deer tags - do they even care about managing deer population?

Bit of a rant, I just don’t don’t think an outdoors enthusiast from Toronto is much different than an outdoors enthusiast from Beaverton or Orillia. Why should by laws hold us back from enjoying nature anyway!

Plenty of places to fish other than Simcoe I guess..

I wish I had taken pictures of the summers of 2020 to prove what the green spaces looked like. These are protected greenspaces and not just lawn-trimmed parks, nor were they campgrounds.

Imagine what centennial park in Barrie looks like on a summer's day. Now imagine that in a protected green space with forest and habitat for the animals. The places people were BBQing and partying were not typical of any other year, and complete areas were trampled. Heaps of garbage never seen in this community for 20 years (since inception) were seen.

Have a look at Wilkin's Walk on Google and you'll see. These are animal habitats. As fishermen and hunters, you guys should appreciate everything the MNR is doing. What happened in 2020 is no short of the same thing that tourists have been doing to the coral reefs to aquatic life. You just can't decide "this forest is mine" and carve out new areas to party in because your city is locked down.

Again, the parking restrictions suck, I agree. Anglers are affected and upset, I get that. But the reasons for action weren't just some knee-jerk reaction - it was either action or having the green spaces levelled. Maybe the way they implemented the fix was incorrect. Maybe they should have done something different. Write to the mayors and ask for change and provide a solution.

The MNR and local parks and environmental groups were so serious about protecting Wilkin's Walk, that they threatened to close the entire beach. They were going to replace the sand beach with rocks. Luckily, Barrie residents took up in arms and saved them from doing that. https://www.thestar.com/local-barrie/news/c...se-closure.html

Bang on x2

Never seen Whitby launch "free". Was a resident for many years and it was always 8 or 9 bux for the day. The gates are usually open but you still have to display your paid ticket in the dash

I wonder how the businesses in the area feel about the situation, does it affect their bottom dollar.