Author: Cottage Life

Categories
Cottage Life

Transport Canada considers making lifejackets mandatory on recreational boats

Photo by Keith Levit/Shutterstock

Transport Canada, which oversees both recreational and commercial vessel safety, is asking members of the Canadian Marine Advisory Council (CMAC) to weigh in on whether all boaters, including those in human-powered vessels, such as canoes and kayaks, should be legally required to wear a lifejacket while out on the water.

The CMAC is comprised of parties with interests in shipping, navigation, and marine pollution, and it advises the federal government on marine safety and security issues. During the council’s fall 2022 meeting, Transport Canada asked members to provide comments on a list of regulations the agency had developed around lifejackets.

The proposed regulations included the following:

Age requirements:

  • Require the mandatory wearing of a PFD or a lifejacket for any person aged 14 years or younger on board a pleasure craft; or
  • Require the mandatory wearing of a PFD or a lifejacket for any person aged 18 years or younger on board a pleasure craft.

Vessel size requirements:

  • Require the mandatory wearing of a PFD or a lifejacket for any person on board any pleasure craft six metres in length and below; or
  • Require the mandatory wearing of a PFD or a lifejacket for any person on board any pleasure craft nine metres in length and below

Vessel-type requirements:

  • Require the mandatory wearing of a PFD or a lifejacket for any person on board any motorized vessel (i.e. powerboats); or
  • Require the mandatory wearing of a PFD or a lifejacket for any person on board any motorized vessel (i.e. powerboats) and human-powered vessel (i.e. canoes, kayaks)

Transport Canada asked members to submit answers about which regulations they supported, any they disagreed with, or any proposed variations to the regulations by February 20.

Transport Canada started floating the idea of making lifejackets mandatory on recreational boats in 2018 when it hired a behavioural scientist to conduct an online survey assessing the perception recreational boaters had of lifejackets. The agency also sent out boating safety officers to public locations to record the number of people wearing lifejackets.

Using the data collected, Transport Canada crafted its proposed lifejacket regulations, and is now gathering feedback from safety organizations and industry partners.

Currently, boaters are required to have a lifejacket on board for each person, but the lifejackets don’t have to be worn. Although, in 2022, MPP Norm Miller brought forward the Lifejackets for Life Act in the Canadian Parliament,  which would require children 12 or younger to wear a lifejacket while on a recreational boat. Not complying with the Act could land you a fine of $200.

According to Transport Canada, wearing a lifejacket can be the difference between life and death, especially in cold water. “This is true despite the boater’s experience, closeness to shore, and even swimming ability. A sudden fall into cold water can seriously affect breathing, nerves, and muscle strength. A lifejacket gives you thermal protection as well as keeping you buoyant. Most recreational boaters who die on the water each year in Canada are not wearing flotation devices or are not wearing them properly,” the agency said on its website.

Last year, the Ontario Provincial Police reported 29 boating-related fatalities. Of those 29 people who died, 26 weren’t wearing a lifejacket.

After February 20, when Transport Canada has received feedback from CMAC members, the agency will open the proposed lifejacket regulations to public review and comment through its Let’s Talk Transportation website.

“Input received on these options, and the issue of mandatory wear in general, will inform potential regulatory amendments, including the approach taken towards potential non-compliance with any future regulations,” the agency said in an email.

Need more news?

Find your cottage state of mind all year round with our weekly newsletter, Dockside

Sign up here

Categories
Cottage Life

Your genetics influence how resilient you are to cold temperatures, says new research

Photo by Dudarev Mikhail/Shutterstock

Some people just aren’t bothered by the cold, no matter how low the temperature dips. And the reason for this may be in a person’s genes. Our new research shows that a common genetic variant in the skeletal muscle gene, ACTN3, makes people more resilient to cold temperatures.

Around one in five people lack a muscle protein called alpha-actinin-3 due to a single genetic change in the ACTN3 gene. The absence of alpha-actinin-3 became more common as some modern humans migrated out of Africa and into the colder climates of Europe and Asia. The reasons for this increase have remained unknown until now.

Our recent study, conducted alongside researchers from Lithuania, Sweden, and Australia, suggests that if you’re alpha-actinin-3 deficient, then your body can maintain a higher core temperature and you shiver less when exposed to cold, compared with those who have alpha-actinin-3.

Take the plunge: the benefits of ice baths and cold-water swimming

We looked at 42 men aged 18 to 40 years from Kaunas in southern Lithuania and exposed them to cold water (14℃) for a maximum of 120 minutes, or until their core body temperature reached 35.5℃. We broke their exposure up into 20-minute periods in the cold with ten-minute breaks at room temperature. We then separated participants into two groups based on their ACTN3 genotype (whether or not they had the alpha-actinin-3 protein).

While only 30% of participants with the alpha-actinin-3 protein reached the full 120 minutes of cold exposure, 69% of those that were alpha-actinin-3 deficient completed the full cold-water exposure time. We also assessed the amount of shivering during cold exposure periods, which told us that those without alpha-actinin-3 shiver less than those who have alpha-actinin-3.

Our study suggests that genetic changes caused by the loss of alpha-actinin-3 in our skeletal muscle affect how well we can tolerate cold temperatures, with those that are alpha-actinin-3 deficient better able to maintain their body temperature and conserve their energy by shivering less during cold exposure. However, future research will need to investigate whether similar results would be seen in women.

ACTN3’s role

Skeletal muscles are made up of two types of muscle fibres: fast and slow. Alpha-actinin-3 is predominantly found in fast muscle fibres. These fibres are responsible for the rapid and forceful contractions used during sprinting, but typically fatigue quickly and are prone to injury. Slow muscle fibres on the other hand generate less force but are resistant to fatigue. These are primarily the muscle you’d use during endurance events, like marathon running.

Our previous work has shown that ACTN3 variants play an important role in our muscle’s ability to generate strength. We showed that the loss of alpha-actinin-3 is detrimental to sprint performance in athletes and the general population, but may benefit muscle endurance.

This is because the loss of alpha-actinin-3 causes the muscle to behave more like a slower muscle fibre. This means that alpha-actinin-3 deficient muscles are weaker but recover more quickly from fatigue. But while this is detrimental to sprint performance, it may be beneficial during more endurance events. This improvement in endurance muscle capacity could also influence our response to cold.

A beginner’s guide to cold-water surfing in Canada

While alpha-actinin-3 deficiency does not cause muscle disease, it does influence how our muscle functions. Our study shows that ACTN3 is more than just the “gene for speed”, but that its loss improves our muscle’s ability to generate heat and reduces the need to shiver when exposed to cold. This improvement in muscle function would conserve energy and ultimately increase survival in cold temperatures, which we think is a key reason why we see an increase in alpha-actinin-3 deficient people today, as this would have helped modern humans better tolerate cooler climates as they migrated out of Africa.

The goal of our research is to improve our understanding of how our genetics influence how our muscle works. This will allow us to develop better treatments for those who suffer from muscle diseases, like Duchenne muscular dystrophy, as well as more common conditions, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. A better understanding of how variants in alpha-actinin-3 influences these conditions will give us better ways to treat and prevent these conditions in the future.The Conversation

This article—by Victoria Wyckelsma, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Muscle Physiology, Karolinska Institutet and Peter John Houweling, Senior Research Officer, Neuromuscular Research, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute—is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

A voice from the wilderness

Get The Great Outdoors, our biweekly brief on all things nature

Sign up here

Categories
Cottage Life

Last year’s top 10 Canadian weather events

By Petri Volanen/Shutterstock

Late in 2022, Environment and Climate Change Canada released its annual list of the top 10 weather events of the year. Sure, weather stats show that 2021 was more destructive, disruptive, and expensive than 2022. But last year was no weather picnic. Remember Fiona? Remember the billion-dollar derecho? “In 2022, Mother Nature either froze, buried, soaked, smothered, blew at, or frightened us at various times throughout the year,” the ECCC announced in its official roundup press release. Here’s which events made the top 10. Drum roll, please!

 

No. 1 Hurricane Fiona

No surprise here: Fiona topped the destruct-o list. She pummelled Atlantic Canada with rain, wind, storm surges, and waves; rainfall amounts topped 150 mm in parts of the Maritimes and eastern Quebec, and rainfall rates, at times, exceeded 30 mm per hour. Winds exceeded 100 km/h in five provinces, blowing, in some cases, for 12 hours straight, knocking down power poles and 100-year-old trees. It was “likely the most damaging hurricane in Canadian history,” says the ECCC. No kidding.

Insurance and government overlook cottagers affected by Hurricane Fiona

No. 2 The Ontario and Quebec derecho

If you didn’t know what a derecho was at the beginning of 2022, you do now. The group of thunderstorms that hit Ontario and Quebec over the May long weekend was the first time in the history of the ECCC’s weather service that the government issued a severe weather phone alert through the National Public Alerting System. According to the ECCC, the service only issues such an alert if winds reach 130 km/h or if the storm produces hail that measures more than seven centimetres (picture spheres the size of baseballs falling from the sky).

Experts weigh in on how damaging the May long weekend storm was

No.3 A wet, wet spring in Manitoba

Record amounts of melting snow combined with record amounts of rain—more than three times the 30-year normal—meant that the province experienced some of its most extensive and longest-lasting flooding in years. The heavy rainfalls happened intensely and quickly, faster than the still-frozen ground could absorb the excess water. Multiple rivers were at risk of overflowing; 45 municipalities and nine First Nation communities across the province declared local states of emergency.

Cottagers told to evacuate as severe flooding persists in southeast Manitoba

No. 4 Hot and dry all over

Summer 2022 was the third-warmest on record for Canada (2012 and 1998 were hotter); temperatures were, across the country, nearly 1.6°C “above normal.” A huge and persistent heat dome engulfed much of Western North America. It wasn’t as intense as the 2021 heat dome, but it lasted longer, and many weather-recording sites broke century-long records for August through October.

No.5 The double-coast wildfires

Even though the B.C. wildfire season started slowly thanks to a wet spring (see No.6), by July it was in full force. The first major blaze (the Nohomin Creek Fire) broke out on July 14 just west of Lytton, B.C. By the end of July, another major blaze, the Keremeos Creek wildfire, had broken out near Penticton. By the beginning of August, the provincial government had issued 1,000 property evacuations. On the other side of the country, meanwhile, parts of central Newfoundland were experiencing the worst wildfires in more than 60 years. Why? Summer temperatures were warmer by 2 to 3°C and rainfall was, across the province, up to 70 per cent below normal.

Over 300 properties, mountain resort, ordered to evacuate wildfire zone in B.C.

No. 6 Spring is winter in B.C.

In B.C., winter 2022 lasted until nearly the first day of summer. Multiple communities across the province had record-breaking lows over the Easter weekend. In fact, twenty-seven record-low temperatures were set on April 16; Vancouver registered its coldest day for that month since observations began in 1896. Nanaimo, meanwhile, experienced its wettest April since 1892. And in Victoria, between May 20 and June 18—a.k.a. the dry season—23 out of 30 days were wet. Ugh.

No. 7 Super-storms in the Prairies

July in the Prairies was stormy. Super stormy. At least four powerful and dangerous July thunderstorms barrelled from the Alberta foothills to eastern Manitoba, bringing rain, huge hail, gusty winds, and tornadoes. The first one hit the afternoon of July 7, developing over central and southern Alberta. The town of Bergen recorded an EF-2 tornado—wind speeds between 180 and 190 km/h. The next day brought golf-ball size hail and four more tornadoes in parts of Saskatchewan (near Paynton and Blaine Lake). Then, on July 9, yet another tornado touched down near Argyle. Unfortunately, that tornado-tastic storm was just the first in the month-long series of storms. Take a break, Mother Nature!

No.8 The “humongous” amount of rain in Montreal

September brought urban flooding—a phenomenon “that is becoming more frequent and more impactful”—to the Quebec city. Downtown, along with the eastern suburbs, received a month’s worth of rain in just two hours. The downpour swamped intersections and underpasses with up to a metre of water. Highways and streets had to close, and water poured into Montreal Metro stations. Flooded pipes and sewers shot manhole covers into the air, and cars were stranded. According to the ECCC, insurance losses totalled $166 million. This makes the Montreal rain event the third most expensive extreme weather disaster in 2022 after the Ontario-Quebec derecho and Hurricane Fiona.

How will climate change affect your property? A new tool shows you

No.9 Record-breaking cold to ring in the new year

In December 2021, an extremely cold air mass from Siberia descended across most of Northern and Western Canada. On Christmas Eve, the N.W.T’s Deadmen Valley recorded a low of -45°C. (The only place on earth colder was Yakutsk, Russia, at -48°C.) Elsewhere, at times, everywhere from B.C. to Northern Ontario was under an extreme cold weather warning, with wind chills ranging between -40 and -55. On December 26, Key Lake, Sask., plunged to -42.1°C (-50 wind chill); two days later, Edmonton, Alta., followed suit, breaking a record set in 1880. The new year was worse, especially for those in the Northwest Territories. Between January 5 and 7, the temperature in Whitehorse plummeted to -44.8°C and at Watson Lake it bottomed out at -52.2°C. (A record-low, of course.)

Do you dress for the cold weather the right way?

No. 10 Three weekends of January storms in Atlantic Canada

Atlantic Canada couldn’t catch a break in January 2022. During the first week of the year, a storm intensified into a bomb cyclone along the Eastern seaboard before arriving in the Maritimes. Cape Breton got the worst of the storm’s snow: up to 50 cm. Then, on January 15, Cape Breton got another smackdown as a similar storm from the mid-Atlantic directly hit it. Poor Cape Breton. Finally, at the end of the month, a third weekend storm formed in the south before walloping New England and getting stronger as it closed in on Canada. In New Brunswick, the added snow, dumped onto already huge snow drifts, lead to zero visibility conditions, and northern parts of Nova Scotia were hit with more than 40 cm. Snow-maggedon!

And…that’s a wrap on 2022. Let’s see what 2023 brings. Get ready.

A voice from the wilderness

Get The Great Outdoors, our biweekly brief on all things nature

Sign up here

Categories
Cottage Life

Last-minute Valentine’s Day gifts to get your partner who loves the cottage

Photo by maxbelchenko/Shutterstock

Valentine’s Day is just days away. You can be forgiven if it’s fallen off your radar, a lot has been going on over the past few weeks. We’re here to help you, though. We’ve compiled a list of gifts that you can get your hands on, quickly. Plus, they are meaningful to cottagers.

Categories
Cottage Life

Deerhurst’s new owner plans to build thousands of recreational properties at cottage-country resorts

Photo Courtesy of Deerhurst Resort

Besides launching the singing career of Shania Twain, Deerhurst Resort has made its name as a family-friendly getaway in the heart of Ontario’s cottage country. Nestled on the western shore of Peninsula Lake, outside Huntsville, the 760-acre property features two golf courses, tennis courts, a spa, axe throwing, cross country ski trails, and 400 guest rooms. But after a recent ownership change, the 127-year-old resort will be undergoing a multi-million dollar facelift.

In September 2021, Freed Developments, owned and operated by Peter Freed, spent $330 million to acquire Deerhurst Resort; Horseshoe Resort, north of Barrie; and development lands at Blue Mountain Resort in Collingwood from Skyline Investments Inc. Combined with Muskoka Bay Resort, which Freed opened in 2002, the purchase established Freed as the largest resort community owner in Canada.

The shift to cottage country, however, was an unanticipated move for Freed as the company has made most of its money developing condos in Toronto. The company said it plans to continue operating the properties as resorts but will develop the surrounding land with homes and condos.

“Freed’s resort portfolio will include over 1,000 existing hotel rooms and employ over 2,000 people locally. Long term, Freed is projecting to bring over 8,000 new developable units to the Northern Ontario market, with 3,000 of those units being delivered over the next five years,” the company said in a statement.

The new developments, which are being managed by Freed Hotels and Resorts, a division of the parent company, will serve as recreational properties that owners can either live in, cottage at, or rent out through the resort. Muskoka Bay Resort already has a number of villas, homes, and condo units that will be available for move-in by summer 2023. And Freed has started selling units for a condo that will be built at the base of Horseshoe Resort’s ski hill. According to Jesse Hamilton, the vice president of operations at Freed Hotels and Resorts, the same can be expected at Deerhurst.

“There have been approvals on land at Deerhurst to build mixed-use buildings, a combination of residential units and resort condominiums as well as some retail space, for close to 10 years,” Hamilton said. “We’ve already completed the plans for a new 400-room condominium hotel, which will act partially as a standalone resort in that it’ll have its own restaurants, it will have its own gym, it’ll have its own arrangement of meeting space, its own pool, but guests of this new building, and homeowners of this new building, will have access to all the amenities at the resort today.”

The new building will overlook the front nine of the resort’s Lakeside golf course. Hamilton said that Freed expects to enter the building phase soon. But first, as part of the planning process, the resort will hold a community open house with the town of Huntsville and the District of Muskoka in late February to present its development plan.

“The only reason the real estate opportunity exists at Deerhurst is because of the resort environment. There will be people who buy in this new development as an entry into having a cottage. That’s going to be a reality for a percentage of the owners; people who can’t necessarily afford a waterfront cottage due to the scarcity,” says Hamilton.

According to Huntsville planning staff, Deerhurst intends to build two buildings containing 447 units, connected by a shared entranceway. Huntsville’s town council approved development on this land in 2015 when former Deerhurst owner Skyline Investments brought forward a plan to build a four storey condo. However, the project never happened.

At the time, there was some pushback from members of the Peninsula Lake Association, who were worried construction would damage the canal between Peninsula Lake and Fairy Lake. The Hidden Valley Property Owners Association, a neighbouring community on Peninsula Lake, also had run-ins with Deerhurst over changes to its property. In 2019, the association wrote to the town about concerns it had over Deerhurst installing a series of staff trailers.

Kassandra Barker, a member of the Hidden Valley Property Owners Association, said she hasn’t received much information about Deerhurst’s proposed development, but she does have questions. “Are they going to be right on the water? Will [the owners] have boats? Will they not have boats? Do they have water access?”

Hidden Valley has a community meeting planned to discuss the development and to give members a broader understanding of Deerhurst’s plan. Until then, Barker is keeping a balanced outlook on the development. “If it’s going to create jobs in the area, then that’s a huge benefit. People get up in arms about cottage country getting too developed, which is understandable. It’s hard not to,” she said. “There’s only so much we can do to maintain the area’s cottage-country status. With massive buildings going up, that could be a huge problem.”

Deerhurst has submitted an application to the town for a zoning amendment to build on the land. As part of the application, Deerhurst must outline whether development will impact the environment, traffic, visual water and sewer, or stormwater management. If there are any impacts, Deerhurst will have to include mitigation measures it would implement to alleviate the situation.

The application will proceed through a public consultation period and then council will review it, said Huntsville councillor Cory Clarke in an email.

If council approves the plan, the sales phase for the condo units could start by late summer.

Property ownership isn’t a new concept at Deerhurst. In 2019, the resort reopened its Lakeside Lodge after an extensive renovation. The lodge included 150 condo units owned by individuals. One hundred of those units are part of Deerhurst’s rental program where the resort manages the unit, renting it out to guests, and giving a percentage of the earnings to the owner. Hamilton estimated that three quarters of the accommodations offered to guests at Deerhurst are condo units that the resort rents on behalf of the owner. The units that aren’t rented are either lived in or used as a recreational property.

In addition to plans for a new condo, Freed Hotels and Resorts will also complete a multi-million-dollar renovation on some of Deerhurst’s existing buildings. According to Hamilton, this will include updating the conference and meeting space; introducing new retail spaces at the resort, such as a café and clothing stores; a state-of-the-art gym facility, with studio space for workout classes; a club-level experience; as well as renovating 102 rooms in the resort’s main pavilion.

Despite all the changes, Hamilton stressed that Deerhurst will remain a resort, offering the same values it always has. “That will never change,” he said.

Buy, sell, rent, dream

Get The Key, our weekly newsletter on all things cottage real estate

Sign up here

Categories
Cottage Life

How will climate change impact your property? New real estate tool shows you

Photo by Shutterstock/2M media

Climate change is a reality that is overwhelming to tackle. But two tech companies aren’t shying away from the issue. Instead, they’ve created a tool that allows real estate buyers to see how the climate is expected to shift around their prospective property.

Montreal-based Local Logic has partnered with San Fransico-based ClimateCheck to bring Canadian buyers a climate risk assessment.

“Climate change is transforming the real estate landscape, introducing new and costly levels of physical risk to property,” said Vincent-Charles Hodder, co-founder and CEO of Local Logic, in a statement. “Home seekers can now assess an area’s risk for climate-related disasters and, using our suite of location insights, make more informed decisions about where to buy and how to mitigate risks from climate change.”

The new tool is currently being used by Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, Royal LePage, and REW.ca for listings across Canada.

“It’s looking at 2050, and it’s saying within the next 30 years, what is the forecasted climate impact on this area for heat and for storms,” said Pierre Calzadilla, Local Logic’s EVP of growth.

The tool covers a five-kilometre radius around the property and will tell you how many hot days to expect in 2050, what the average temperature of those days will be, how many severe storms will occur, and how much precipitation to expect.

For example, a home for sale in North Vancouver currently experiences seven hot days per year at an average of 27 degrees Celsius. That number’s expected to increase to 24 days in 2050, averaging 31 degrees Celsius. As for storms, the area’s expected to see a jump from 12 significant two-day storms to 14, with the precipitation per storm rising from 885 mm to 1020 mm.

As the climate changes, Calzadilla pointed out that many insurance companies are pulling back from high-risk areas, such as floodplains, and buyers aren’t always aware. “It just helps people understand that this is a real thing. People have to take into account that there’s nowhere to hide with climate change.”

Local Logic and ClimateCheck have been providing free climate risk assessments in the U.S. for several years, presenting data on heat, storm, fire, drought, and flood. Calzadilla said that the two companies are currently working on introducing flood-risk data in Canada.

On top of climate risk assessments, Local Logic also provides information about a property’s surrounding area. For example, suppose a young family was looking to buy a new home. Local Logic could tell them the average noise levels in the neighbourhood, how close schools are, accessibility to transit, and the ease of getting groceries.

The company’s ability to provide location intelligence makes it the perfect partner for ClimateCheck, which was founded to bring climate change information to real estate owners and buyers.

“Combining ClimateCheck’s granular climate risk data with Local Logic’s location intelligence insights helps real estate brokers, investors, and consumers alike understand how intensifying hazards like flood and fire might affect their properties in the future,” said Cal Inman, CEO of ClimateCheck, in a statement. “This knowledge empowers them to make smarter decisions about where they buy property and how they maintain or improve property to guard against mounting risks.”

Categories
Cottage Life

A fireside chat with ChatGPT about cottaging in Canada

Ever since ChatGPT, an advanced chatbot created by OpenAI, was released to the public in November 2022, it has taken the internet by storm; disrupting academia and content creation with its ability to generate essays and SEO optimized blogs in a conversational tone. Before it became a paid tool, I sat down with ChatGPT for an interview on cottaging in Canada. While it wasn’t afraid to weigh in on where the best butter tarts can be found in Ontario—a controversial question for our readers who are passionate butter tart connoisseurs. (We like to think our story about the best butter tarts in Ontario is a more exhaustive list. You can read it here). Despite my probing, it was reluctant to offer up personal opinions or preferences and prefaced answers to questions of that nature with a disclaimer that it is only a language model.

While ChatGPT may have been trained using text databases from the internet, some of its answers included noticeable factual inaccuracies. When I asked it to rank the best Great Lakes for waterskiing, it incorrectly identified Lake St. Clair as a Great Lake. In a FAQ posted on ChatGPT’s website, it acknowledges that it is not connected to the internet and will produce incorrect answers on occasion. “It has limited knowledge of the world and events after 2021 and may also occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content.”

Note: This interview has been left unedited and incorrect information has been highlighted in yellow and explained in italics below the answer.

 

Q: Where is your favourite place to cottage in Canada?

A: As a language model, I don’t have personal preferences or experiences. However, Canada is known for its beautiful natural landscapes, and many people enjoy cottaging in locations such as Muskoka, Haliburton, and the Kawarthas in Ontario, the Laurentians in Quebec, and the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. Each of these regions offer unique features and attractions such as lakes, forests, and mountains.

Q: What lake in Ontario has the most beautiful sunsets?

A: Different people have different opinions about what makes a sunset beautiful, but many people find that sunsets over lakes can be particularly stunning. In Ontario, there are many lakes known for their beautiful sunsets, including Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie. Some of the most popular lakes for sunsets in Ontario include Muskoka Lakes, Lake of Bays, and Georgian Bay. These lakes offer a variety of vantage points from which to view the sunset, such as boat cruises, waterfront cottages, and public parks.

Fact check: Muskoka Lakes is a municipality, and there are several lakes that reside within it. 

Q: Rank the Great Lakes in order of the best for waterskiing

A: The Great Lakes are known for their recreational opportunities, including waterskiing. However, the best lake for waterskiing would depend on factors such as the size of the lake, the quality of the water, the weather conditions, and the presence of ski clubs or other facilities. Here is a list of Great Lakes in order of popularity for waterskiing:

  1. Lake St. Clair: It is the smallest of the Great Lakes and has the warmest water. It is known to have great waves and flat water ideal for slalom skiing and barefoot skiing.
  2. Lake Huron: It has the longest shoreline of the Great Lakes and offers a variety of water conditions, from calm bays to large swells.
  3. Lake Michigan: It is known for its consistent wind, which can create excellent conditions for jumping and slalom skiing.
  4. Lake Erie: It is the warmest and shallowest of the Great Lakes, making it ideal for beginners and recreational skiers.
  5. Lake Superior: It is the largest and coldest of the Great Lakes, it is known for its beautiful scenery, but the water can be quite choppy and the wind can be strong, making it less ideal for waterskiing.
  6. Lake Ontario: It is the easternmost of the Great Lakes and the smallest in surface area, it is known for its relatively calm waters, making it a good place for recreational waterskiing, but the water can be colder than the other lakes.

Please note that this is not a definitive ranking and other factors such as personal preference and skill level also play a role in determining the best lake for waterskiing.

Fact check: Lake St. Clair is not one of the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes consist of Huron, Ontario, Erie, Superior, and Michigan.

Q: How would you define a cottage?

A: A cottage is typically defined as a small, simple, and usually old-fashioned vacation home or second home, typically located in a rural or semi-rural area such as near a lake or beach. Cottages are often used as summer homes or for weekend getaways. They are typically smaller than a primary residence and often have a rustic or cozy feel. Some cottages may have basic amenities such as a kitchen and bathroom, while others may be more rustic with outdoor facilities. Cottages may be owned or rented, and can be found in many different locations, such as in the countryside, by a lake, or on a beach.

Q: Where are the best butter tarts in Ontario?

A: Butter tarts are a popular treat in Ontario, Canada, and are known for their flaky pastry crust and gooey, sweet filling. The best butter tarts can be found in many places across the province, but some of the most popular locations include:

  1. Kawartha Dairy in Bobcaygeon, Ontario – They are famous for their butter tarts and are known to have the best butter tarts in Ontario.
  2. The Butter Tart Factory in Midland, Ontario – They have a wide variety of butter tarts, including traditional, pecan, raisin, chocolate, and more.
  3. Golden Harvest in Cambridge, Ontario – They offer homemade butter tarts using locally sourced ingredients.
  4. The Little Red Kitchen Bakery in Fenelon Falls, Ontario – They are known for their traditional butter tarts, and also offer unique flavors such as maple bacon and salted caramel.
  5. The Tart Lady in Toronto, Ontario – They offer a variety of flavors in their butter tarts, which are all made with real butter and locally sourced ingredients.

Please note that this is not a definitive list and there are many other bakeries and small businesses across Ontario that offer delicious butter tarts.

Fact check: Kawartha Dairy does not make their own butter tarts; they bring them in from Don’s Bakery. There is no Butter Tart Factory in Midland, Ont., however there is a butter tart festival. There is also no Golden Harvest bakery in Cambridge, however there is a Golden Hearth Bakery in Kitchener, Ont. According to their website, they don’t sell butter tarts. No bakery exists in Fenelon Falls under the name The Little Red Kitchen Bakery, however there is a Little Pie Shack, and they do sell butter tarts. I could find no record of a business in Toronto called The Tart Lady. However, there is a business called The Butter Tart Lady that is located in Manitoba.

Q: What is the best thing about cottaging in Canada?

A: Cottaging in Canada can be a wonderful experience due to the country’s beautiful natural landscapes and varied recreational opportunities. Some of the best things about cottaging in Canada include:

  1. Scenic beauty: Canada is known for its beautiful natural landscapes, including lakes, forests, and mountains. Cottaging in Canada allows you to enjoy the beauty of nature, with many cottages located in picturesque settings such as on the shore of a lake or in the heart of a forest.
  2. Recreational activities: Cottages are often located in areas where there are many recreational activities to enjoy, such as swimming, boating, fishing, hiking, and skiing.
  3. Relaxation: Being away from the hustle and bustle of city life and enjoying the peace and quiet of the countryside can be a great way to relax and unwind.
  4. Family and social activities: Cottages are often used as a gathering place for families and friends and provide opportunities for socializing, playing games, and enjoying meals together.
  5. Affordable vacation: Cottages are often more affordable than hotels, which makes it a budget-friendly vacation option.
  6. Building memories: Cottage trips are often connected to fond memories of spending time with loved ones, enjoying the outdoors, and creating lasting memories.

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list and other factors such as personal preference, location, time of year and the weather may come into play when considering the best things about cottaging in Canada.

Feature Video


Categories
Cottage Life

Can the federal government intervene in Doug Ford’s Greenbelt development plan?

Asclepias, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has said he may intervene in the Ford government’s plan to develop sections of the Greenbelt. During an interview with The Narwhal, he said it was possible the federal government could use the Species at Risk Act to halt planned development near the Rouge National Urban Park in Toronto—a known corridor for Blanding’s turtles, an at-risk species. Or, he said, the government could use the Impact Assessment Act, which the feds used in 2021 to determine whether Ontario’s Highway 413, needed additional federal oversight.

While the statement from Guilbeault is the first time that he’s publicly stated the federal government could attempt to intervene, he has been voicing concerns over Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s intention to build 50,000 homes on sections of protected Greenbelt land.

During a press conference in Toronto in January, the minister said that the provincial government’s plan to remove 7,400 acres of land from the Greenbelt for development, “flies in the face of everything we’re trying to do in terms of being better prepared for the impacts of climate change.”

At a press conference in Brampton, Ford told reporters he was disappointed to hear Guilbeault’s comments, “This is our jurisdiction,” he said. “You can’t complain about not having enough housing for years and then complain when we come up with a solution to do it. We’re going to continue building the 50,000 homes on those pieces of property.”

Despite Ford’s confidence, the Greenbelt development hit a snag in late January when Ontario’s integrity commissioner and auditor general announced they would be separately investigating the project to see whether the Ford government colluded with developers when opening the land for homebuilding.

Ford has denied any wrongdoing.

Can the federal government legally intervene?

Assuming the project does move forward, there are no guarantees that the federal government will intervene in the Greenbelt development. “There’s a certain amount of signaling communication, of sending messages, sending hard messages, sending soft messages that are public. And then there’s, of course, what the governments are saying to each other privately,” says Patrick Fafard, a professor in the University of Ottawa’s department of public and international affairs. “The minister’s comment was not accidental. It was very deliberate. But it’s really hard, based on the limited information we have, to know what their ultimate goal is. I would leave open the possibility that there’s a range of goals of which actually going and using federal legislation to frustrate the build may not actually be the only goal or may not even be the goal. There could be other things going on.”

In regards to using the Species at Risk Act to stop development, Fafard says the act doesn’t give the federal government authority over private land or Crown land, which make up much of the areas set to be developed. It does, however, give the federal government authority over national parks, such as the Rouge National Urban Park, and adjacent land where species-at-risk may move through.

The Impact Assessment Act is more ambiguous. Fafard says it’s unclear whether the federal or provincial government’s environmental assessment takes precedence over a given project. “[Guilbeault’s comments] may be the federal government taking advantage of that ambiguity,” he says.

If the federal government decided to use legislation to intervene with the Greenbelt development, it is possible that the provincial government could push back by taking the feds to court.

“Canadian history is littered with examples, where for all sorts of reasons, good, bad, and indifferent, the government of Canada takes an action and says, ‘We’re going to use our authority to do this.’ And one or more provincial governments say, ‘No, we don’t like that.’ So, it goes to the Supreme Court,” Fafard says. “The Supreme Court for 150 years has been in the business of issuing rulings that say, ‘Well, we look at these two pieces of legislation, we look at the Constitution Act, and for the following reasons, we agree that the federal government has the authority or we don’t agree that the federal government has the authority.’”

Will the federal government intervene?

Julie Simmons, a political science professor at the University of Guelph, says she wonders if the federal government has started to shy away from intervening with the Greenbelt development. “The fact that the Environment Minister has not repeated what he said suggests to me that this is not a strategy that the Prime Minister’s Office is supporting at this time.”

She speculates that it could be because the federal government is in the midst of negotiating health care agreements with each province. If a problem, like the Greenbelt development, rears its head elsewhere, it could have ripple effects on the negotiations.

“The federal government isn’t likely to want to be micromanaging what’s happening in Ontario in this instance,” Simmons says. “If there’s a media spotlight on something that’s not what the federal government is focusing on currently with the provinces, then there is political capital to be lost or gained.”

Simmons does add, however, that Guilbeault and Ford butting heads over the Greenbelt could be beneficial.

“There is a train of thought that the environment benefits when there is friction between the two governments because there is a little bit more overlap of care for the environment,” she says, “rather than streamlining of care for the environment, which sometimes means streamlining for the benefit of industry.”

Categories
Cottage Life

Algonquin Park’s Portage Store is changing ownership after 47 years

Photo Courtesy of The Portage Store/Facebook

December 31 marked the final day of the Miglin family’s tenure as the Portage Store operators. The store, all dark-painted wood with colourful canoes and kayaks stacked next to it, stretches along the shore of Canoe Lake, an access point in the southwest end of Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park.

Sven Miglin and his wife Donna have operated the canoe and kayak rental store since 1975. It’s a family business, Miglin, 71, explains. His daughter and son-in-law became operating partners 10 years ago. But in late December, Miglin got some bad news. Ontario Parks, which owns the building, would not be renewing the family’s contract.

“I’ve got 47 years worth of history,” Miglin says. “My kids were partners in the company and now they’re looking for jobs. It’s pretty stressful.”

Founded in 1937, the Portage Store, which is located on provincial park land, falls under the jurisdiction of Ontario Parks, meaning it owns the land and building. The Miglins were stewards, paying rent to the government agency—approximately half a million dollars annually—and sharing a fixed percentage of sales—the store produced a ballpark revenue of $3 million a year.

“They’re the landlord. And they were responsible for the building,” Miglin says.

The Portage Store contract is awarded every 10 years. When the contract expires, it’s opened to the public to submit bids. Despite nearly five decades of experience, this year, the Miglins lost.

5 portaging trips in Algonquin Park for the adventure-seeker

“It’s not just put one number down. We’re into the hundreds of pages,” Miglin says of the bidding process. “They ask all sorts of questions. And the problem today is that the evaluation now is done in secrecy. I mean, the day after I put in my bid, they refused to tell anybody, including me, how many bids went in. They don’t want anybody else to know anything about how they made their decision. For anybody that lost, you say, why not me? I mean, what was the rationale? It’s like playing a hockey game and not knowing what the score is. I can’t tell you how many goals we got and who you played, but they beat you.”

In an email, Ontario Parks said that when assessing the bids it looked at how an individual would meet certain required deliverables, as well as how much revenue would be returned to the agency. Three ministry staff evaluated and scored the bidders’ answers and then used a weighted formula to determine the highest-ranking bidder.

Here’s how to snag an Ontario campsite in 2023

On January 24, Algonquin Outfitters, which operates three locations within the park and several locations in nearby towns, announced that it had been awarded the Portage Store contract.

“The opportunity to improve and enhance the visitor experience in Algonquin Park has always been our focus. Some of our initiatives include education and raising awareness in important areas such as Indigenous culture, canoe and camping ethics, and respect for Algonquin’s wildlife and natural spaces. This will help us embrace, preserve, and share the unique history and experiences of Canoe Lake and the Portage Store,” the company said on Instagram.

Despite the formulaic nature of the bidding process, Miglin admits he’s confused by Ontario Parks’ choice. “Algonquin Outfitters now owns every concession in the park. I had those concessions back in the ’80s and Ontario Parks took them away from me because they said monopolies are terrible. So why would it have changed?” he says.

Moving forward, Miglin is looking at retirement, but his daughter and son-in-law are still weighing their options. “They could run something very similar in the area,” Miglin says. “We’re experts in what we do.” Or maybe they’ll try something new. “In other words, they don’t know.”

Land buyout in Rondeau Provincial Park turned down by government

A voice from the wilderness

Get The Great Outdoors, our biweekly brief on all things nature

Sign up here

Categories
Cottage Life

The 8 most annoying types of Canadian weather

By Nicoleta Ionescu/Shutterstock

“There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing,” said someone, at some point. Okay, sure. But there is definitely such thing as annoying weather. Thus, we present our list of annoying weather (in no particular order). 

Rain-snow mix

Stop trying to be two things at the same time, Precipitation. Either be rain or be snow. You’re not brunch. At the very least, get a better portmanteau. The word “snain” is gross. 

Warm wind

“There’s a warm wind blowing the stars around. And I’d really love to see you tonight.” No, England Dan & John Ford Coley. Warm wind doesn’t blow the stars around, it blows dirt around. Nobody wants to see anyone after a warm windstorm. They want to take a shower and pour a swimming pool’s-worth of Visine in their eyes.

Sunshowers

Sun? Combined with rain? What’s even happening right now? When it rains while the sun is shining, the weather is gaslighting you.

Freezing temperatures with no snow

It’s a rip-off! The trade-off, when it comes to cold temperatures, should be skiing, and snow forts, and pretty trees. That’s fair. With no snow cover, freezing temperatures just mean frozen ground. If that ground was once mud, it turns hard and lumpy and crater-filled. It makes you stumble, as if you’re Neil Armstrong doing a terrible job of walking on the moon.

Wind during umbrella weather

Unless your umbrella is made of lead, any amount of breeze—say, a butterfly flapping its wings within a nine-foot radius—will cause the umbrella to flip inside out, rendering it useless. Somebody please invent a better umbrella.

Use this wind speed cheat sheet

Cloudy from dawn until dusk

The weather wants to make you think that it’s 4 p.m. all day long. Woot-woot, only one hour until quittin’ time! But no. It’s 11 a.m., and you still have to get through five meetings. Psych!

Ice pellets combined with wind

It’s like someone took a bunch of tiny, irregularly shaped beads, put them in the freezer for three hours, took them out, and then started repeatedly whipping them directly into your face. 

Cold with a windchill

Wind snatches away the precious cushion of heat that your body produces. The wind is stealing from you. Worse? Inanimate objects, such as sign posts and your car, get to blissfully remain at air temperature. Lucky.

Do you dress for cold weather the right way?

A voice from the wilderness

Get The Great Outdoors, our biweekly brief on all things nature

Sign up here