Township wants ORCA to operate campground
If Otonabee Region Conservation Authority accepts, the change would take place in the spring of 2023
Selwyn Township will move forward and ask the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority (ORCA) to operate the Lakefield Campgrounds beginning in the spring of 2023, township councillors decided at a special meeting Monday.
All council members were in favour, except Lakefield Coun. Anita Locke, who said she preferred the operation be opened to a competitive market bid. This would allow the campgrounds to operate more or less as they do now. “As ORCA has pointed out, they (ORCA) don’t want trailer parks and they currently have a different business model,” she said.
The 138-site campground that occupies part of the 30-acre Lakefield Park on Hague Point is owned by the township and is contracted out to a longtime private operator.
It’s located beside the public Lakefield beach and other public areas. Many users have had trailers parked on the same lots year-round for years. Camping is permitted from spring to fall.
Township council decided last fall that its agreement with the current private operator would not be automatically renewed. It was agreed to let the operator continue to run the campground until Oct. 15, 2022, to give the township time to review options.
In the event that an acceptable operating agreement cannot be reached between the township and ORCA, the township then plans to pursue a competitive market bid.
In response to information received through the community consultation process, council moved that the following considerations guide discussions with ORCA: the present overflow area be eliminated; the existing footprint of the campground not be expanded; a review be done of the form of camping in the existing three campsite areas, including the mix of services (water, sewer, hydro), site density and layout, and ratio of seasonal and transient sites; and a vegetative buffer be created to mark the camping area from the park/ trail areas.
Councillors also hope to discuss options related to dockage facilities including: eliminating docking facilities; providing facilities for small craft docking only; and incorporating with other township docking service.
Also on the table are possible new activities and amenities at the campgrounds such as canoe/kayak rentals, concessions, interpretative signs on history, culture, and ecological features, and educational events.
A review of campground rules to include site maintenance/esthetics, accessory structures, overwinter storage, noise and fire regulations will also be encouraged.
Councillors heard from Curve Lake First Nation members Katie Young-Haddlesey, economic development co-ordinator, and Julie Kapyrka, lands resource consultation liaison, about the First Nation’s desire to be included in land use or cultural heritage plans in the area so it can contribute its expertise and Indigenous knowledge.
Kapyrka expressed concerns about harvesting rights on the beach, protection of species “important to our people,” the integrity of the environment, archeological risks and the land’s cultural history.
“Our perspective has always been from a rights’ holders perspective and it’s rights-based. We’d like to be involved in any planning process that is slated for these lands, whatever that may be, early on,” Kapyrka said. “We’d like to be right there with you.”
The decision is “not a compromise, it is a surrender,” said Bob Sproule of the Real Friends of Lakefield Park, a group which had hoped the campground would continue to function through a private operator as it has since 1996.
Sproule, on the Real Friends of Lakefield Park Facebook page, recently said, “I am concerned … that ORCA, which is a government agency, will be seen as a compromise to appease a few residents.”