Parking concern. Petition?

[Basspike]

Hi. I'm reading all the posts about parking restrictions around l.simcoe.
If we won't do anything, those residents will close lake for themselves in few years.
Any chance we could make a petition to gov of Ontario or hit some higher offices than townships.
I'm not very official guy and I'm only few years in Ontario but I feel that we have to do something. Don't believe emails to townships will do anything.
I hope there are some guys here that can compose a nice letter, then we get it signed by as many as we can. (I'm not a good writer), then we'll send it to oficials

I think that petition may help us.
Thanks

[mumbo jumbo]

count me in ill sing it

[WTFish]

OFAH should be championing this. Ice fishing boards should be championing this. It's a huge problem. Public access to public water is disappearing at light speed.

There's enough ice fisherman to convince the politicians that our voice matters. Problem is getting ice fishermen to speak in one voice. Half of us like to crap in our own nest and blame other ice fishermen

[Nuclear]

Good idea worth a shot I ll sign.

[Woodsman]

Maybe ending all Provincial & Federal funding of local recreation until they decide to treat all citizens equally. Their excuse that our tax dollars pay for this conveniently forgets both the Provincial & Federal funds transferred to them for recreation projects.
IMO when they give free passes to locals but charge non-locals ridiculously high fees is not right.
Around where I live if there is a fee, it is applied equally to both locals and visitors.
Or if free it's free for everyone.

[garfield the cat]

I’m definitely in. Fish for 20 years an I’m tire of getting parking over the years taken away. Fed up with high priced parking

[outdoors4life]

count me in. Losing our parking is absolute bs.

[reelinginthebigone]

Honestly, you might have better chances of going straight to the township. I don't mind being part of this movement, but we need to come up with a solution to their problem first.

Find a solution that keeps the traffic out of Simcoe and allows for Anglers to access the waterfront. Propose it to the town during the next town hall.

Just complaining about is only complaining. Finding a solution to the problem offers a much higher chance of getting the change we want. The reason their solution sucks is that they haven't thought of something better.

I can't imagine the parking in downtown Barrie is bad in the winter. Propose a solution that people with a sports fishing license can register with the township for free parking over the winter months. Maybe registration costs $30 and goes towards cleaning the waterfront in the spring and hauling ice huts out of the lake.

[Vampire With Freckles]

Hi Folks:

Just my 2 cents worth on this subject as follows:

I am a northern and this problem is not unique to Lake Simcoe etc.
Unfortunately, providing parking for people to access the lake costs cities and towns money - on a year around basis including costs for paving the parking lot, cutting grass in the summer, plowing snow in the winter etc. In addition, some people who use parking lots to access a lake leave garbage on the ground etc. and as a result it costs the towns and cities a lot of money to maintain the parking lots.

Local people may not be required to pay to park when accessing the lake due to the fact they are already paying property taxes which go towards the up keep of the parking lots. Non locals who use the parking lots do not contribute to local taxes and as a result they are charged a fee for using the parking lots.

Another example would be - when I go to my doctor's office - I have to pay to park in the parking lot or if I have to go to the hospital I can look forward to paying to park. I hate paying to park but I accept if I want to drive a car and I need to park my car I will likely need to pay to park my car.

I honestly don't think parking lots in and around lake access points will ever be free - its unfortunate but its also a fact of life.

[Washout]

It's the same from Sudbury to Niagara Falls. -- Simcoe is just following suit.... No point complaining.

"Pay to Play" is the new "Yours to Discover"

Don't like it ....Go fish in Quebec.

[xiaolu]

"Pay to Play" sounds very reasonable indeed.

However, to me this whole thing is not the issue with nor related to "Pay to Play" at all! It is the problem that there are many locations around lakes where you from out of town are NOT allowed to park at all, even if you want to "Pay to Play"!

[Basspike]

That's correct. Saying that out of town residents don't want to pay for parking is not the case.
Its about parking only for residents, which in my opinion is discrimination of residents of County of Simcoe which don't live in townships surrounding the area.
The money we pay for licenses goes for l.somcoe stocking program too...

[Basspike]

Thx

[earthling]

The problem is interesting. Lakes, like other prime destination real estate (downtown cores) will slowly become gentrified by people buying into an ideal, not a reality (the lake is a public resource), and who probably did not grow up around lakes or whose values change with wealth. How do you stop the influx of influence, by making changes above the city level thats for sure because it is in the city/municipality/regions interest for taxes to go up with property values. (no other avenue for revenue growth for that prime real estate).

Access to public resources is there for all, that you use them for fishing is only one part of the story, there are lots of other uses and this isn't just about fishing, its about all uses of these public resources.

[Tonyayo17]

I would sign this petition. Even if they had paid parking i believe most anglers wouldn't mind paying it. The profits from the paid parking could help with the maintenance of the lake and possibly the construction of more parking lots.

This post has been edited by Tonyayo17 on Jan 11, 2022 - 08:38 am