As a long time resident of Ramara Township I have witnessed some very unsavoury behaviour from our elected representatives.

My wife Anna and I, as well as many friends and neighbours organized to get Ramara Township and then Simcoe County to recognize the need for improvements in traffic safety on the 6.7 km portion of the quarry haul route (Simcoe County Road 47). In 2015 this 6.7 kms of Simcoe County Road 47 had 16 accidents and seven of the accidents involved aggregate hauling trucks leaving the road, with the loaded trucks flipping and the unloaded trucks usually staying upright. The long story is shortened to say that after a well circulated petition, media coverage, many phone calls to MTO & OPP and a power point deputation at Simcoe County council on February 25th, 2016 the speed limit on the 6.7 km stretch of Simcoe County Road 47 was reduced from 80 kms/hr to 60 kms/hr, and in the fall of 2017 the shoulders of Simcoe County Road 47 were reenforced and rolled with lime stone aggregate.

The real incentive and challenge to become much more environmentally minded showed up in early 2017 as the plague of large scale soil dumping moved into Ramara Township and the City of Kawartha Lakes close by. Unfortunately in Ramara Township and from what we understand for the most part in the City of Kawartha Lakes the uncontrolled large scale soil dumping has been very poorly addressed by municipal, county and provincial politicians. There is a consistent level of ignorance and disinterest despite some changes in municipal and provincial governance. Truthfully it is very likely only the fuss that has been made that has contributed to slowing down, but not totally deterring further uncontrolled large scale soil dumping in the area. By fuss I mean providing fact based evidence, asking questions and attempting to hold municipal, county and provincial politicians accountable. The Ramara Township and City of Kawartha Lakes Fill Bylaws were updated in late September and early October, 2018 with the help of Carmela Marshall and Ian McLaurin, Ontario Soil Regulation Task Force. However, it still rare to have an incident of large scale soil dumping where the protective measures of the respective Fill Bylaws are actually implemented. Truck loads of soil typically start to show up, usually in the early morning hours, and very rapidly several hundreds of truckloads of soil will be dumped before the local municipality will even acknowledge the illegal activity. Even after the municipality has been forced into acknowledging that the soil dumping activity has taken place they have in two known instances issued Stop Work Orders, and then allowed the soil dumping to continue after offering the owners of the properties the option of applying for a building permit so the Fill Bylaw can be circumvented. There is plenty of evidence of collusion and likely corruption that could fill a book. Had someone told me before January, 2017 that this uncontrolled large scale soil dumping could go unchecked and property owners could be getting rich exploiting our environment, while all levels of government wish them well, I wouldn’t have believed them. Today it is just a potential daily occurrence.

I realize this is becoming too lengthy and will skip ahead to the issue of Ramara Township’s infatuation with MZOs (Ministerial Zoning Orders). There has been a demonstrated tendency on the part of Ramara Township Mayor and Council to embrace the belief that simply pursuing MZOs will circumvent the need for good municipal planning, and additionally avoid the nuisance of public input. On two occasions when Ramara Township Mayor and Council have been confronted with well founded objections, to this undemocratic, short sighted and exploitive version of municipal planning that MZOs represent, the Mayor and Council have abandon responsibility and shift the blame onto any other party readily available. The demonstrated lack of integrity and collective incompetence is baffling and certainly does not benefit Ramara Township residents and tax payers. I can tell you that some accountability is in progress.

It is tremendous to see the success of a committed group of primarily younger people recognizing the absolute need to protect their future from the often unscrupulous actions of our elected officials at all levels of government. Thank you for all of your great work!

Take Care,

Mike Douglas