380 Macey Bay Road is the…

380 Macey Bay Road is the dead end of a road that is surrounded by the Tobie’s Bay PSW and a federal nature preserve that is so rich with sensitive habitat and SAR that it is off-limits to humans. Tobie’s Bay PSW has been identified by the scientists at the Georgian Bay Land Trust as one of the 2 most valuable PSWs on the eastern shores of the UNESCO-designated Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve. (GBBR) This means it has more SAR and other species per acre than most habitats of a similar size in Canada.
According to scientist, Dr. Karl Schiefer, the eastern shores of the GBBR offer the most diverse ecosystem in Canada due to its unique combination of wetlands, shallow waters that warm in the summer, thousands of small islands providing staging and movement corridors for various species and deep cool water areas. The Government of Ontario has exempted the Great Lakes system, including Georgian Bay, from the Zero Gain kill policy for these very reasons. There is no arguing that our most valuable ecosystems must be protected.

Things to know about the proposed trailer park at 380 Macey Bay Road:
• The developer of record is the ‘Macey Bay Development Corporation’ (MBDC). They have presented themselves to the Township, District, OMB and MOECP, as well as at a recent public Open House, as MBDC. Yet the application to circumvent SAR regulations has been applied for using a different name. As a result, it has served to avoid detection by the public until this week, just days before the deadline for public comment, on a holiday weekend. Very deceptive.
o The developer should be forced to reapply under their corporate ‘name of record’ that they have used for all delegations, public meetings, OMB hearings, and planning applications since 2013.
• The EIS that the developer submitted to the Township of Georgian Bay failed a Peer Review by North-South Environmental, of Milton. Most of the Peer’s recommendations have been ignored by the developer-
o Conduct a more thorough EIS during all seasons, including nesting /mating seasons, to identify all SAR and threatened species
o Increase the buffer zone from the PSW
o Establish the Critical Habitat Zone (CHZ) before applying the buffer zone set-back
o Add buffer zones to the inland wetland habitat
o Provide a species corridor for passage under the bridge that currently goes over the PSW and forces species to cross the roadway in order to travel from one part of the PSW to another.
o Prohibit golf carts and pets
o Reduce the scope of the development- they are trying to put too much development on this sensitive property
• Exceedingly shy SAR live in the adjacent Federal Reserve, such as the Least Bittern. According to biologists, this species does not tend to relocate when the human species crowds them. Based upon the scpe of the proposed trailer park development, scientists anticipate that the Lest Bittern will become stressed and this will negatively impact their reproduction cycle until the entire flock eventually dies out. The only effective ‘mitigation’ is to reduce the scope of the human development next door at 380 Macey Bay Road.
• Incredibly, the ECA for the sewage works was approved without the benefit of a single satisfactory Peer Review by a qualified engineer -not from the Township, the District, or the MOECP
• This sewage works ECA approval is now the subject of a Superior Court Judicial Review- nothing further should be approved until the results of the Judicial Review have been determined.
• The approved sewage works plant is inadequate for the proposed trailer park- the design does not allow for 2 Park Lake models on each of the 180 trailer sites, which the OMB authorized in March of 2017. This should have required a design that doubles the anticipated loading. Instead, the projected loading has been reduced during weekdays with no documented evidence to support any reduction of the published loading.
• If the sewage plant fails, as is projected by Engineers within the community, it will release pathogens and toxic chemicals used to treat the sewage into one of the most important wetlands in the GB Biosphere. With devastating long-term effects.

There is no evidence that any of the meek measures proposed by this developer will provide a ‘gain’ for the SAR, Threatened Species, or their current habitat. In fact, quite the opposite. This application is a license to kill and destroy one of the most important habitats on the GB World Biosphere Reserve. Please turn it down.