District of Muskoka We Oppose Bracebridge Sewers
est. Dec. 23, 2015
STATUS scroll down for original website sections which start below line. Images are near bottom. Links to all the media coverage are just before the images.
The District is the worst group of people our neighbourhoods have ever come across.
Fight back against their ridiculous charges and save $1,000+ per year. Scroll down.
Connect or pay a $15,000 fine!! The District thinks they can trespass and forcibly hook you up without your permission. Tell the District to FOAD!!!
”In the event that a person fails to make a connection as required by this bylaw, Muskoka may enter onto the lands and make the connections at the owner’s expense…”
See bylaw 2021-17 on muskokacivicweb. Duben and Stevens wanted the fine to be $50,000!!!
Those two recommended the District keep almost all of $300K taken from Gravenhurst residents in a tax "error." Definition of theft.
Zero integrity. Is that a requirement of District staff? Even kids in a sandbox know you give back what isn't yours. Scroll down to the scolding videos.
The District even admitted on TV they illegally attempted to hook our neighbourhoods up. After they failed legally with others. That's how desperate they are to hook people up.
We found out our rights, fought back and won. Scroll down to TVCogeco.
Unbelievable. Have Muskoka councillors and staff lost their mind?
They lurch from one massively expensive mistake to another. Sheer stupidity. We will be paying for their mistakes for decades to come.
Once again. Sheer Stupidity.
And again.
Are all District decisions based on bunk?
https://southmuskoka.doppleronline.ca/district-of-muskoka-approves-new-strategic-plan/
New more accurate District of Muskoka Logo. Smugly Wasting Taxpayer Money.
Be careful criticizing the District or your home may get blown up. Conincidence?
To read what inspired the giant sign and the new logo scroll down to just after the District clowns with the dynamite.
Rapidly approaching a BILLION!!! dollars blown by the District. For very poor services. Drunken sailors are thriftier.
https://southmuskoka.doppleronline.ca/big-stink-district-tackles-multiple-wastewater-issues/
Muskoka is the MOST EXPENSIVE of 110 municipalities in Ontario for water and sewer services and connection charges
At the Nov 20, 2019 EPW/FCS meeting Julie Stevens (finance) admitted Muskoka is the MOST expensive of 110 municipalities in Ontario for services and connection charges.
$200/month is typical. $100/month even if you are away and have zero usage because of the fixed consumption charge plus the massive tax levy for water and sewer only shown/hidden on your property tax bill.
Around $800+/year!!! No other municipality puts charges like that on property tax bills.
Only the unfortunate residents that happen to have District pipes in the road have to pay that charge whether they are hooked up or not!
Imagine being forced to pay for gas or cable or phone even if you aren't hooked up and don't want to pay uncompetitive charges!. Or else you lose your home due to non-payment of taxes!
$42,000!!! cost per connection here to hook people up. Average is $12,000 in similar municipalities. 3.5X!! the cost.
Believe it or not the District built 18!! multi-million dollar mostly little, toy, white elephant water and sewer plants for only 10,000 connections.
No one else in Ontario Smugly Wastes Taxpayer Money like that. Then spends millions per year to maintain them. Cost is no object at the District.
Watch the webcast at 26:00 here: http://video.isilive.ca/muskoka/EPW%20FCS%20Joint%202019-11-20.mp4.html
As Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith said the District's water and sewer cost is "UNSUSTAINABLE", "ALARMING", "UNACCEPTABLE", "people are struggling to pay their bills".
Capital costs are "incredible". "Per user cost of capital I can't imagine is even close to anybody else".
$128,000 cost per household in Baysville for example. $22.4 million for 350 users or 175 households. Cost is no object at the District.
To watch video of Graydon Smith's comments and other comments regarding the "UNACCEPTABLE" costs of District water and sewer go to 1:02:20 here: http://video.isilive.ca/muskoka/EPW%20FCS%20Joint%202019-11-20.mp4.html
Muskoka Lakes Mayor Phil Harding and Marcus Firman were actually smugly laughing at the multi-million dollar cost of water and sewer projects in Muskoka at the Dec 18 EPW meeting.
Laughing!! Cost is no object at the District. Just a source of amusement. Harding is on the lake so doesn't pay exorbitant District services cost. He couldn't care less.
See 30:05 here http://video.isilive.ca/muskoka/2019-12-18.mp4.html
Worst group of people we have ever come across.
Monthly Cost of Water and Sewer Details in Muskoka $193.35 for 20 cubic metres/month and $300K assessment
This is for only 20 cubic metres per month and $300K assessment. The Urban Service Area Charge tax levy shown only on your property tax bill depends on assessment. No other municipality has tax charges like that for water and sewer.
Many people are much higher than this for assessment and consumption. Particularly in summer.
They used to use at least 21 cubic metres per month.
Typical fixed cost for ZERO usage is property tax levy $74.07 shown + fixed users fees (water $24.59 + sewer $7.10) = $105.76!! or $1269.12/year even if you are away and have ZERO usage.
Most municipalities charge MUCH lower than that INCLUDING consumption.
The tax levy is based on a $300K assessment. Most cottages are worth FAR more than that so once this fee is charged to cottagers they will pay FAR more than the $900 (approx $74.07 X 12 mos) tax levy portion for ZERO usage.
In order to charge this levy the District doesn't even have to hook cottagers up believe it or not.
That's the beauty of the SCAM they are running, for 11 years in some cases.
Just like the SCAM they tried in our neighbourhood.
Exactly the same as a CRA scam where the scammer tells you that you owe a massive amount of money and there is nothing you can do about it.
Tens of thousand of dollars up front to connect plus thousand of dollars every year forever.
Then it turns out legally you don't owe them money and there is a lot you can do about it.
It turns out it doesn't matter that the project was stopped by residents.
Just the fact residents were illegally put "at risk" of making very large payments is sufficient for charges.
It doesn't make any difference the projects were stopped and no money actually changed hands.
In our case the payments would have totalled $1.273+ million just in the first year. $100,500 every year after that.
Significantly above $5,000 and $1 million. That means the highest penalty for conviction. Except they are immune.
THREE laws were broken by the District that time.
If a resident had done the same thing they would be in jail.
Except the District is immune from any provincial or federal charges.They can do whatever they want and they know it.
The District illegally tried to force our neighbourhood to hook up by ambushing us at Christmas with the letter and:
1. not telling us we had the right to stop them with a petition and
2. not telling us the entire cost (the District had dishonestly done that earlier in Huntsville as well, Mens Rea) and
3. not stopping immediately when we did present them a petition.
All illegal. 3 violations.
Worst group of people we have ever come across.
Remember the District is not an individual unfamiliar with the law. They are a large organization complete with a legal department. Zero credible excuse for the violations.
Normally District documents are cut and pasted from previous actions. In our case what they did was unique. A reasonable person would have to conclude it was deliberate.
The District gives millions/year to the OPP. They often tell the local OPP what to do not the other way around. Scroll down to the OPP logo. You have to go to Orillia, of course.
The District had always told people their rights previously (as required legally) but every time they did that with other neighbourhoods they were rejected. So this time, with us, they tried it illegally.
We found out our rights anyway, fought back, and won.
The District is at it again now. I guess you can't blame them since the laws are not enforced. Zero consequence to putting residents "at risk" of making very high payments they didn't owe.
That's the definition of a very serious charge right there. Except the District is immune to charges and they know it.
They "got away with" that one. So far...
Hundreds of people are paying the tax levy right now that aren't even actually hooked up at all. They have been paying it for years. Sometimes by "mistake". For 11!! years. See below.
The District just has to run empty pipes in the road within a few km (distance not defined) to put cottages in the Urban Service Area A where this levy is charged.
Or they could just say the pipes are in the road when they really aren't. Much cheaper for them. That way they can charge cottagers the $900 right away.
They "got away with" doing that in Gravenhurst for 11 years until residents caught on. Lucky for the District they are immune to charges. See a pattern?
Most cottagers will pay much higher than $900 because their assessments are much higher than $300K.
The full $2,400/year, or with much higher assessments, $3,000+/year for water and sewer hook ups can follow later.
Many of the little, toy water and sewer plants are only running at 25-50% capacity so they are ready to handle the cottagers.
The District has been forcing a 93 year old gentleman to pay the tax levy for years now, even though he's not hooked up, and expect him to also pay $33,000+ to blast through 220 ft of solid rock to reach a District pipe on a different street, not his address.
Many cottages are easier to hook up than that.
The Urban Service Area Charge is the tax levy shown only on your property tax bill under District Water A and District Sewer A only if you are hooked up to District water and sewer.
In Muskoka how much you pay for water and sewer depends on your assessment. No other utility works like that. No other municipality hides massive water and sewer charges on your property tax bill.
Chart from "2020 Draft Rate Supported Operating Budget and Capital Budget and Forecast" on muskokacivicweb. See document to see how badly Muskoka compares to other municipalities.
Those increases look small but that's only because of massive increases in the past. The District is working on another set of massive increases in water and sewer cost for taxpayers.
They are blowing $30-65 million on a sewer project in Huntsville. Zero new revenue. That project will likely balloon to over $100 million due to "unexpected rock" and plain incompetence.
Baysville water and sewer ballooned 4X+!! compared to the initial estimate.
Julie Stevens said "I don't know where" they will get the money if the Province and Feds don't cough it up.They are going ahead regardless.
I know where they will get it. From the taxpayer, as usual, who is already paying the the highest cost in Ontario. Get ready for $3,000-$4000/year for water and sewer.
Old Property Tax Bill Example - more recent $900/year ($74.07 X 12) charges shown in the chart are much higher. Charges depend on assessment.
Residents vs Cottagers comments: https://muskoka411.com/start/a-message-from-muskokas-mayors-and-the-district-chair-to-all-residents/#comment-2231
The LAST place you want to be is in town on District of Muskoka water and sewer. Cottagers also get FREE municipal water at filling stations. Residents pay $200/month. $100+/month even if you are away and have ZERO usage.
Here is your chance to finally get rid of the District once and for all. We cannot afford their extremely wasteful, redundant, unethical, illegal and malevolent actions. Worst group of people we have ever come across.
https://www.mymuskokanow.com/87494/area-mayors-have-met-with-special-advisors/
Scolding videos of District staff for trying to "get away with" keeping almost all of $300,000 that didn't belong to them:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1cEh1TnRqZVdJVjQ/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1QVdsWmVwbXZHNnM/view?usp=sharing
Those two councillors are now gone so staff is free to do whatever they want.
Staff's ridiculous response to including interest on refunds. They blamed residents!!! for not noticing the District's tax error.
Worst group of people we have ever come across.
Staff was only going to refund 1 year of an 11 year error and then only to 3 residents that noticed the District's error and complained. Not all 198 properties they knew they owed money to.
Stevens tried to say the District doesn't pay interest on refunds knowing full well they just did a few months earlier. Duben corrected her. Notice she laughed at the suggestion of paying interest. Very disrespectful.
Duben didn't want to include interest because it was a lot of money that they owed, unlike the faulty water meters. Notice they never took responsibility for the error. What other money-making errors are on your tax bill?
Does anyone seriously think the 198 properties are the only ones with massive tax errors for many years? Start at 2:00.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1M0RFUUFrT01EdXc/view?usp=sharing
So let's recap. No ownership of the "error". No apology. Resistance to giving it back or paying interest. No intention of finding the source of the error or similar errors. Admitted previous illegal activity.
A reasonable person might conclude it was deliberate. No one is that incompetent for that long. Other illegal actions are listed below. Mens Rea.
The way it's supposed to work is councillors tell staff what to do not the other way around. Not here. Not in Muskoka. Unelected self-serving staff run Muskoka. Not gullible, elected councillors.
That is why your taxes are so high in spite of having the massive cash cow of cottagers that need very little services.
That is why water and sewer rates are by far the highest in Ontario, in spite of having easy access to unlimited water, when you include the $800+ they hide on your property tax bill under District Water and District Sewer. Details on that are below.
$200/month or $2,400/year for water and sewer is typical for Muskoka. There is no affordable housing in town with costs like that.
Make sure you build beyond the District's exorbitant services. Like on a lake somewhere.
Those on the lakes complain about high taxes for low services but they are not paying $2,400/year for water and sewer.
The last thing you want is District services. Your own systems are FAR less expensive.
Latest Illegal Actions by the District:
Mandatory Connections Bylaw 2017-16. https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/29629?preview=29674
Section 11 of 2001 Municipal Act does NOT say the District can force connections. Read it yourself. https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/01m25
Who writes these bylaws? Knowing they are full of errors?
Too bad there isn't some sort of legal department at the District to check the legality of illegal policies like AD:22 and bylaws like 2017-16.
The obsolete 1990 Municipal Act used to allow forced connections. Not any more. Residents pointed this out to the District and were ignored, as usual.
Other utilities like natural gas, cable TV and wired phone put services in the road and do NOT force anyone to hook up.
They try to be efficient and competitive and hope people hook up based on a good price and service.
Other utilities don't massively increase your property taxes just because they felt like putting services in the road and you aren't even hooked up. Check your property tax bill.
The DIstrict would rather waste millions of dollars with spectacularly bad management and then try to FORCE residents to hook up to their exorbitant, uncompetitive, highest cost in Ontario, very poor services.
Illegal Policy AD:22 was used against residents in Bracebridge to try to force extremely expensive sewers ($20K-$40K) on residents.
Residents, with the help of the Province, had to educate the District in the Municipal Act in order to stop their actions.
The District has since hit Pause with illegal policy AD:22 but it's full steam ahead with their illegal mandatory connections so far.
Residents will have to educate them on the Municipal Act and stop them (again).
Only 5 of 366 properties have hooked up after the District demanded that they do. Tell them to take a hike. Of course the District is liable for any and all costs for those who hook up under false pretences.
Go to https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents and search FCS-3-2019-3 Jan. 25, 2019 and FCS-9-2019-3 July 17, 2019 for District status reports on mandatory connections.
Previously a letter was sent to residents just before Christmas demanding they hook up but residents stopped them. They are at it again now with mandatory connections.
The District admitted what they did was not legal on CogecoTV in front of a room full of residents when they attempted to force residents of Muskoka to hook up.
Jahn implied there was more than one area where the District "fell short". 3 laws broken actually. One is a very serious federal law. Except the District is immune.
Here at 1:45: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPMOnjZytrE
"I apologize for the error, it means that officially from a LEGAL standpoint there is not a local improvement process initiated from this point on".
At 2:25 "We are literally imposing fees on residents"...($20K-40K)... "may not have the ability to pay for". This means the District could seize your house for non-payment.
They "got away with" that one, so far...
As Duben and Clow know just the fact residents were AT RISK of making very large payments ($20K-$40K) as a result of the District's ILLEGAL ACTIONS is sufficient.
Well over $5,000 per occurence. Well over $1 million total.
The District is that DESPERATE to force more people to hook up to their extremely expensive, inefficient, old, leaky sewer and water systems.
Of course the District is LIABLE for any and all one time and ongoing costs incurred by any resident who hooked up under false pretenses.
Connections now only if requested in writing by the property owner.
See 2001 Municipal Act in Section 86 (1)(d) under Specific Municipal Powers. It's CRYSTAL CLEAR.
Anyone who received a letter from the District bullying them to hook up should refer them to this section.
Do NOT fill out an application to hook up. That would count as a request in writing.
Wasaga Beach FAILS in court trying to force mandatory connections. The District of Muskoka thinks they are above the law again. Not so.
"Brief" has turned into 3+ years. Wasaga Beach has dropped any enforcement of mandatory connections after failing in court Feb. 2016.
“As the enforcement agency, it is our obligation to clearly set out the statute and the section that has been offended, so you might properly review that section or sections and then prepare your defence,” senior municipal law enforcement officer Doug Vincent wrote. “We failed to clearly set out these references in both the order and the subsequent charging information.”
That's likely because there are NO statutes to offend. The 1990 Municipal Act used to give municipalities the authority to enforce connections. Not any more. Not since the 2001 Municipal Act removed that authority. Read the 2001 vs 1990 Acts yourself.
This was pointed out to the District by residents but, as usual, residents were ignored.
Once again the District's actions totally conflict with the current Provincial Municipal Act.
Mandatory Connections info click here https://sites.google.com/site/opposebracebridgesewers/#mandatoryconnections
District info : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SoNm_x0pPqQe7JQfSIKLvLO6gFUhY6N4/view?usp=drivesdk
Kawartha Lakes backs off forcing mandatory connections. Muskoka must do the same.
Kawartha Lakes totally reversed forcing connections likely because they found out Wasaga Beach failed in court trying to force connections. A precedent is everything in law.
https://www.mykawartha.com/news-story/8914547-mandatory-connection-only-when-water-or-sewer-fails/
https://www.mykawartha.com/news-story/8560540-costs-for-mandatory-municipal-water-too-much-for-some/
Baysville Water and Sewer financial disaster. See near end of this document. Pages PDF 39-41. The water plant averages 8% utilization.
Cost ballooned from $5.3 to $22.4 million for 350 people or $128,000+ per household. Gold plated septic systems cost much less than that. Cost is no object to the District. Sure, there is capacity for the next 200 years of growth in Baysville, but still... not sure why Muskoka residents are paying for that now. The current, proposed $65 million Huntsville project is likely to balloon over $100 million and double District debt.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RKabrPCXC8pwBj1RTHaIDDLFMOG4rjMA/view?usp=drivesdk
Now the District Clowns are Blowing Up Perfectly Good Homes - cue the calliope.
And we all get to pay for it. A $1.4 million project just turned into another multi-million dollar disaster.
Extra cost of the explosion so far? $500K to hire non-circus people to finish the job. Not including repairing all the damage to the homes.
The District Circus has been in town FAR too long. Time to eliminate this extremely wasteful, dysfunctional, redundant layer of government/circus. Time to put them out of our misery.
Julie has probably already added $1,000 to our water and sewer bills to pay for this latest District Disaster. Check your bills for an "Explosion Fee".
https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1471380
So I guess Patrick Boyer shouldn't have complained about the District digging up his street for the last 3 months... The District obviously doesn't like to be criticized...
"Smugly wasting taxpayer money"
The District needs to change their motto. "Smugly Wasting Taxpayer Money" is far more accurate. It should be on their letterhead.
Giant sign in front of one of the 15 homes the District clowns blew up.
New more accurate District of Muskoka Logo. Smugly Wasting Taxpayer Money.
New more accurate District of Muskoka Logo. Smugly Wasting Taxpayer Money.
Remember to take scissors to a council meeting. https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2019/03/15/welcome-to-bancroft-ont-where-residents-are-charged-2-400-water-bills_a_23693418/
Water Conservation instead of building multi-million dollar water and sewer plants.
Scroll down for ideas to CUT your municipal water usage 80-90% and potentially SAVE $1,000/year. Substitute FREE non-potable water for many uses.
Of course you don't pay tax on money you save so saving $1000 is equivalent to earning an extra $1500-$2000 before tax.
As hydro and the District's water and sewer services continue to increase in cost the alternatives get cheaper and cheaper. Septic systems are already FAR cheaper than the District's old, leaky sewers. See section 4 below.
It used to be municipalities could handle water and sewer services and infrastructure. The costs used to be next to nothing. Not any more, particularly in Muskoka, so municipal systems are rapidly making themselves OBSOLETE.
The future is a greatly reduced need followed by elimination of extremely expensive water, sewer and hydro services.
See the end of this horrific story. https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstories/welcome-to-bancroft-ont-where-residents-are-charged-dollar2400-water-bills/ar-BBUSyWt?li=AAggNb9
"the fees levied by the municipality to hook up your new house to city water, sewers and roads — are increasing like crazy."
"Since 2004, these charges have increased across the GTA between 236% and 878%."
"these costs add $186,000 (!) to the price of an average new single family home"
http://torontosun.com/news/local-news/braun-taxman-targets-home-buyers
Zero Net Energy and off grid tech (solar panels and batteries) are rapidly going DOWN in price.
Affordability of District services is the WORST in Ontario in Gravenhurst. Cost is DOUBLE most of Ontario. 2% vs 1% of household income. This is NOT including the Urban Service Area fees of $800+/year shown on your property taxes. See example below. If those fixed, massive charges are included Muskoka is by FAR the most expensive in Ontario for water and sewer services in spite of having easy access to unlimited water, unlike some communities in Ontario.
If you want to build in Muskoka make sure it's beyond reach of District water and sewer. Like on a lake somewhere. Otherwise you will be hit with $2,400/year in water and sewer charges on top of an average $42,000 for a connection. In other similar municipalities the connection cost is $12,000. Muskoka is by far the highest cost in Ontario. There is no affordable housing in town with $200+ monthly charges like that.
The amount of potable/drinking water you need every day is actually very small.
FREE, non-potable water can be substituted for most of your usage. Stop flushing your money down the toilet along with the District's extremely expensive water ($100+/month plus $4.36/cubic metre in 2018). Total can be $200/month. Water and sewer is probably by FAR your highest utility bill including charges shown on your property tax bill. Higher than even electricity.
Substitute your own, FREE non-potable water source as shown below and save hundreds of $$$ per year. No changes to existing plumbing or fixtures needed. Just add some plastic tubing and a few other inexpensive bits. Of course extremely expensive water means an extremely short payback on any water conservation measures you take.
Mayor Furniss stated water and sewer operations in Muskoka are paid for only 65% of water and 53%!! of sewer processed volumes. Is that because the District gives water away for FREE to cottagers while charging residents exorbiant amounts? "No one could run a business" like that. Far WORSE than the rest of Ontario which is 80%+. Our taxes are paying for incompetence like this. Mayor Smith called District services UNSUSTAINABLE now. Also very poor environmentally. 1,130,000 litres of sewage dumped into Muskoka rivers and forests in the last few years. Not including filling resident's basements with sewage. Anyone hooked up is contributing to all these spills.
To listen to the mayors' scathing comments start at 9:30 here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1OEpMcmtIN0NBUTQ/view?usp=sharing
Baker thinks your token, temporary hydro cost reduction should be spent on the District's old, leaky sewers!!
The District is so DESPERATE to hook people up they are willing to BREAK THE LAW. Scroll down to the image from the TVCogeco news story. They actually broke three laws that time.
How much more AFFLUENT would you be without any utility bills and much lower property taxes because of no extremely expensive connections? How much less expensive is an unserviced building lot? You can buy a lot of tech for the cost of connections. How much more valuable would your house be unencumbered with monthly utility bills? See Zero Net Energy below.
Without extremely expensive connections you can build wherever you like. Not tightly clustered around municipal services. There is a housing development above Toronto that's been on hold for 6 years!! because they are waiting for municipal services. They should just forget about it and build cheaper, greener off grid homes.
Extremely high water and sewer costs (property tax charges, connections and service) combined with low household income mean Gravenhurst was the WORST IN ONTARIO for affordability in 2012. Costs have only gone up since then. This is in spite of having easy access to unlimited water, unlike a lot of communities in Ontario. The fixed charge for water in Muskoka is 3X! Orillia or Guelph. Variable charges are higher as well. 2.6X! Collingwood for example.
See Cairns comments about the extra $800+ Urban Service Area fees shown on your property tax bill in the following story.
https://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/3573499-service-rates-here-among-the-highest/
Residents of Muskoka have responded to extremely high costs by cutting consumption.
Clearly District services are in a self-destructive death spiral due to spectacularly bad management.
Google "utility death spiral" and see graphic below in the electricity section.
More detail and documentation at the bottom of section 6. below.
Clearly a greatly reduced need for extremely expensive District water and sewer services.
The District keeps whining their water and sewer revenue doesn't go up when they raise prices because people just cut back on consumption. Well... Duh...
You might think very highly paid staff would have taken an Economics 101 course on price elasticity but apparently not.
Instead of trying to provide competitive services the District just keeps increasing costs for residents.
They continue to greatly increase the fixed and variable charges for services. Compare a new to an old bill. The fixed charge for water went up 19% from Dec. 2015 to Jan 2016 after Firman suggested the fixed charge should be 70% of your bill. See Nov. 2015 budget meeting audio for his comments at the bottom of section 6.
This is on top of fixed charges of around $800+/year for water and sewer on your property tax bill. Total fixed charges $1,170+/year, even if you have no usage at all. If you are out of the country on a trip? Doesn't matter, pay up. This is if you are one of the unfortunate, small minority that have water and sewer pipes anywhere near you. Maybe even on a different street hundreds of feet away. It may cost you $30K+ to blast through solid rock to get to them. You may be 91 years old and can't possibly afford it and your septic system is working perfectly. None of that matters to the District. They will try to BULLY you to hook up to their old, leaky system, no exceptions.
Calculate your total yearly bill even if you don't use their services at all. Make sure you are sitting down. You will find the charges are FAR higher than gas or even hydro for no usage. Totally out of control.
Below are suggestions to drastically reduce your municipal water consumption by 80% from 250 to 50 litres per person per day and potentially SAVE $1,000 per year. The average consumption in Canada is 250 litres now, down from 350 litres in the past.
Typical indoor water usage. Outdoor water usage can easily double this.
Your usage can vary quite a bit from this.
For those stuck paying the District's exorbitant water and sewer bills, which are by FAR the highest in Ontario, you can cut the variable part of your bills 25-50% with a grey water recycle system. They are common in commercial buildings and moving into residential construction. Reusing relatively clean, warm water going down the shower drain to flush toilets will save 25%+. Energy can also be recovered and reused to preheat cold water going to the hot water tank as well.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/homes/Adding+grey+water+recovery+system/6037675/story.html
video link: https://youtu.be/s2pA-4zKeFw
I
For those on septic, water conservation will also extend the life of your system. You could delay costly septic bed upgrades while saving on your water bill.
City of Guelph rebates https://guelph.ca/living/environment/rebates/
$2000 max towards rainwater harvesting systems @ $.50/L of storage. A small system is 2500L.
$1000 towards greywater systems.
Muskoka Water Convervation Rebates? SFA.
Notice ZERO metered municipal water used for sprinklers, toilets or laundry in the above graphic.
Eliminate much higher water consumption in spring and summer due to lawn watering, car washing etc.
Water conservation rebates like the City of Guelph has should be mandatory before funding building any new capacity.
Many people rely on rainwater/cisterns for ALL their water needs.
A UV system can sterilize it without chemicals. https://www.rainharvest.com/filtration/post-filtration/uv-disinfection.asp
Or use a cistern only for your non-potable water needs.
Don't Water Your Lawn at All - Stop paying sewer charges for water that doesn't go down the sewer.
Switch to moss in shady areas and never mow, water or fertilize again. Zero maintenance. Green under the snow in the spring.
In Muskoka the municipal water is sometimes so full of chlorine you have to let it sit to dissipate the taste and stink.
Or just hold your nose. Next time it could be not enough chlorine and the water is contaminated. Matter of time.
In 2014 9 samples showed high Total Coliform and one sample showed chlorine residual was less than half the required level.
See PW-4-2015-2 on https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/search
Municipalities often have a "boil water" advisory or even a Walkerton E. coli incident when the municipality screws up at the water plant.
In Walkerton it was 6 dead and 2,000 poisoned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkerton_E._coli_outbreak
Larger cities can't properly operate water infrastructure anymore either.
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/boil-water-advisory-for-anjou-do-not-drink-tap-water-without-boiling-it-first 7 people hospitalized.
How many people were drinking the contaminated water before the "boil water" advisory went out? How many haven't heard about it?
Sometimes the District delivers muddy/cloudy/yellow/rusty water which happens in Muskoka periodically. Same price for water you can't use.
Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG) - solves the above problems with District Water- Protect Yourself
Background info: http://archive.wcponline.com/pdf/0705%20untapped.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_water_generator
"some homes won’t need a well or connections to a municipal water system"
To go totally off-grid use a system like this for your potable water needs. Powered from your solar panels and residential battery.
Tightly sealed Zero Net Energy houses can have a problem with humidity building up too high.
This is the solution instead of just exhausting the humid air and losing a lot of energy in spite of an air exchanger.
It's basically a big dehumidifier that produces cool, great tasting drinking water.
Much better than any municipal water.
FAR cheaper than bottled water.
It also reduces your air conditioning requirements. A larger unit can be part of your a/c system.
FAR cheaper than drilling a well which may or may not taste the best.
FAR cheaper than a municipal connection when combined with a cistern or shallow well for your non-potable water needs.
Or : https://ecoloblue.com/atmospheric-water-generator/228-148-ecoloblue-30e.html#/21-color-white
Some models can produce cold, carbonated and hot water. https://youtu.be/kf-E0my9WpE
Some people put them in to eliminate bad tasting municipal water.
First Nation in Yukon tests new machines to pull water from air $1,300 Cdn
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/water-air-liard-first-nation-1.5096266
Perpetual First Nations potable water issues could be solved in a single stroke with machines like this. Forget about a central municipal supply.
Muskoka water issues (muddy/rusty, over/under chlorinated) could also be solved with machines like this.
New upcoming tech for FREE potable water.
https://www.kqed.org/science/1924858/new-device-produces-water-from-thin-air-no-electricity-required
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/water-harvester-makes-it-easy-drink-water-thin-air
A light coloured roof can cut your water and air conditioning costs significantly.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/06/04/lawrence-berkeley-scientists-find-a-cool-way-to-save-water/
Extremely expensive municipal water will be OBSOLETE for ALL usage. It already is for non-potable usage.
To save hundreds of $$$ per year for less than $50 mount your subsidized rain barrel a couple of feet higher than the toilet. Run some 1/4" ID plastic tubing from the rain barrel to a miniature aquarium float valve ($3 online) mounted inside the toilet tank. Turn off municipal water and your toilet will use zero municipal water. It may take 5-15 minutes to fill back up depending on how efficient your toilet is but that's usually OK. It's also silent while filling. With a RV pump it only takes a minute or two. If a lot of people are around just turn municipal water back on for a short time. This only works in non-freezing weather. For year round use collect warm shower water with a tank in the basement instead as described below but then you likely need a $10 pump.
You can also get used 55 gallon plastic barrels for water storage on kijiji for as low as $10. If you get a white one you can see the level from the outside. Check it has been cleaned of all previous contents.
You can always have both systems with two tanks. A year round one in the basement to supply toilets from shower water and an outside rain water one to handle seasonal increases in water consumption due to lawn watering etc.
You can also run a line to your top load clothes washer and cut most of your water consumption there too. Before starting the cycle fill it with rain water to just 3/4, shut off and remove the fill line then start the cycle and it will fill the rest, wash, then rinse with municipal water. Filling could take a long time with a 1/4" line so set a timer and keep a close eye to prevent over filling. Make sure you have a shutoff valve and a removeable aquarium float valve on the end of the line mounted on a bracket that sits on top of the agitator while filling.
Do NOT connect any alternate, free source of water to existing plumbing to avoid contamination.
Assuming your rain water system is large enough it doesn't really matter if your clothes washer and toilet are super low water consumption since you are using ZERO municipal water. It may make more sense to spend your conservation dollars on a rain water supply system instead.
If you have a sump pump that runs most of the year you may already have a FREE, year round source of non-potable water for toilets, laundry and plants. Or just drill a shallow well. Search YouTube for a lot of easy ways to do that. The Shop-Vac method looks particularly easy. Some videos just show teeth cut into PVC pipe with the vacuum on the other end. In Muskoka you likely don't have to go very far down to hit water. No guarantee.
Easily drill a shallow well with a Shop-Vac for unlimited FREE non-potable water
https://youtu.be/G0MTVVs7QU8 Holey-Moley demo
https://youtu.be/2poYu1zKtoo DIY demo - 3 parts to video
https://youtu.be/2UiHwK33Y9A Holevac demo
https://www.holevac.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html $30 USD
If you find the available flow rate isn't that high just pump it from the ground into a $10 plastic barrel in the basement with an aquarium/RV sized water pump. It pumps periodically if water is available until the barrel is full. A second pump supplies water demand from the barrel. Self priming 12VDC pumps like this are around $15 online. Submersible pumps are $10. Total fully automatic system component cost <$100 to get down to ZERO municipal water for toilets. Less than half the cost of a super low flow toilet.
Central air conditioning units can produce 25-80 litres/day which can be captured and used as shown. That's quite a few toilet flushes. Condensing gas furnaces can produce 4.2 litres per 100K Btu input. Around 20+ litres/day when it's really cold. Both are very clean sources of non-potable water. You may already have condensate pumps for those. Just direct them to the 55 gal barrel instead and figure out how you handle overflows.
In Muskoka water and sewer charges are far higher so the payback is shorter. For those on both water and sewer the payback is 2.5X faster compared to those on water only.
Greywater systems could be considered assuming you have already fixed leaks and replaced toilets with high efficiency ones (as low as 3L per flush), changed to low flow fixtures and shower heads and considered waterless urinals.
Some people create their own DIY versions to get down to zero water use for toilets and plants. The greywater supply must be kept entirely independent of the potable water supply. There are usually strict rules about that.
You want a minimum size tank so it doesn't go stagnant. A tiny bit of bleach fixes that but then your plants may not like it. For minimal cost you could use a rain barrel for a tank. These are often subsidized by municipalities so very low cost.
Waterless urinals work by having a layer of sealing fluid that is mostly vegetable oil floating on top of the urine in the trap to eliminate odour. Going from a 13L toilet to a 3L toilet and waterless urinal saves 95% of the water used in toilets. Most of the time a urinal is all you need. Unisex versions exist that look like a regular toilet without the tank and there is no water in the bowl.
There should be a really big rebate for these.
For a no cost waterless unisex urinal just dedicate one of your existing toilets for urine. Pour a layer of vegetable oil on top to stop odour. Don't flush after use. Turn the water right off in case there is a slow leak. That will save 80% of the water used for toilets. You can always switch back if necessary. If you don't like the colour try a few drops of blue food colouring. There is probably a multi-million dollar business case for a shiny piece of stainless steel with holes in it or some kind of plastic mesh to sit higher up in the bowl to indicate it's urine only and so you can't see the urine. Municipalities should give them out for free to avoid new infrastructure costs.
Just this one no cost change could save you 20% on your water and sewer bills or around $300/year.
Fixing leaks as well could save you 32% total or around $500/year. Get out your bill and calculate your saving. Think of the Caribbean as you save buckets of cash.
Don't give the District a dime more than absolutely necessary.
For an explanation of why this works watch the video here:
https://globalnews.ca/news/3964071/sam-rockwell-f-bomb-saturday-night-live/
If you go with this solution plus a 3L toilet a greywater system doesn't make as much sense.
If you are hardcore you can flush the above without water using a plunger every few days so it doesn't hang around very long.
Or you can flush the above with AIR instead of water. Urine only. Slightly pressurizing the bowl with air will flush practically all of it and ventilate the bowl. Enough remains to seal the trap.
It makes no sense at all to flush toilets with treated, drinkable city water.
Rain water and/or greywater and/or sump water and/or air conditioning condensate and/or dehumidifier condensate and/or heat pump water heater condensate and/or gas furnace condensate makes far more sense.
http://www.uridanaustralia.com.au/casestudy/uridan-compass-steers-nsw-couple-to-greener-solution
https://www.uridan.com/en/designs/compass/
https://www.toiletrevolution.com/waterless-urinals/
Waterless Urinal
Waterless Urinal
Waterless Toilet - No sewer or septic system connection needed
Waterless Toilet - No sewer or septic system connection needed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWBOa7PVyV4
https://www.cinderellaeco.com/ca/articles/what-is-an-incineration-toilet/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rdkGUFzvfc
http://www.testfakta.com/test/the-wrong-toilet-in-a-holiday-home-increases-heating-costs/
It's crazy that municipalities collect sewage and pump it many kms only to dump it into forests, rivers, lakes or someone's front lawn or basement. Sometimes every time it rains.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/paradise-sewage-jim-clark-1.5263805
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/wastewater-sewage-lakes-rivers-canada-election-1.5267326
There are now FAR more modern, FAR less expensive ways to deal with sewage that are FAR better for the environment than sewer systems.
Some cottages are leading the way.
http://thehighlander.ca/2019/05/30/new-toilets-are-bringing-the-heat-to-haliburton/
For your new house instead of spending $50K+ for municipal connections plus $200/month forever for services only to be crammed together on teeny, tiny lots build on a much cheaper, much larger unserviced lot with your own FAR superior, independent systems. The City of Guelph will pay thousands of dollars to get you off their systems.
Just like we are moving toward zero net energy homes followed by off grid we should be moving toward greatly reduced water and sewer demand followed by off grid for those as well.
Zero net energy is mandatory for new houses in California starting next year.
New dishwashers and front loading or high efficiency top loading clothes washers can save 50% in water and power. Heat pump tumble dryers save 50%+ of the power and dry clothes at lower temperatures. No vent required. There should be big water and power rebates for these. Water could be recovered from clothes washers and heat pump tumble dryers but not dishwashers due to food contamination. Dishwashers use little water anyway, less than washing dishes by hand.
Leaks (usually toilets) can cost you $100+ per month. All toilets will eventually start leaking.
90% of homes have leaks averaging 12% of consumption. Regularly check your water meter records zero usage overnight. If not turn off the water to all the toilets at night and check the tank levels in the morning. The one that has gone down is the one leaking. Before replacing parts just wipe underneath the flapper and the plastic sealing surface to see if that fixes the leak. There is a slime that grows there that can cause a slow leak.
Guelph gave a rebate for a device that clamps around your water meter and sends the data to your phone. That would be a lot more convenient and help you find leaks sooner but I don't know if Muskoka water meters are compatible.
https://guelph.ca/living/environment/rebates/flowie-water-sensor-kit-rebate/
Video is here:https://youtu.be/NlzDvkAEJIY
A low cost wifi webcam pointed at your water meter could broadcast the display to your cell phone or tablet. Make sure it's a wifi version not the type that only records to a SD card or needs to be plugged into a pc. They only use a few watts. Your real time water consumption information could be very interesting. Maybe not.
"For example, in 2009, Canadian households with meters on volume-based water pricing schemes used 73% less water than unmetered households on flat-rate water pricing schemes." Making it very convenient to read the meter will result in further reductions.
You can get tiny, very low cost (<$20) wifi spy/nanny cams online. Much more convenient than crawling over all the junk in the basement and standing on your head with a flashlight to read the meter. You will likely need a LED night light ($3 at Dollarama. They also have Princess and Frozen ones but they are $3.50) behind the webcam to light up the display.
There's another multi-million dollar business case for a bracket that clamps to your water meter with the camera and light mounted to it. Municipalities should give them out for free to avoid paying meter readers as the video can be seen online remotely. Manual reading could still be done once a year in good weather. The District still has meter readers? Have they looked at a calendar lately?
In any case you will immediately notice an overnight leak that has developed instead of two months later when you get a scary bill for a few hundred extra $$$.
I highly recommend this suggestion so you can immediately quantify the $$$ saving changes you make.
If you are away for a period of time you should turn off the water which will stop usage due to leaks. Also when the power fails in the winter and your lines freeze and break the water damage will be limited.
If you forget you can remotely see how much water your basement holds as you watch it fill with water after the next power failure.
Save time, money, energy and water
You can save 20-50%+ in water used for showers without reducing your showering time or water flow rate.
Combined with turning the water off while you soap up you can save 75%+.
If your water heater is a long way from the shower you waste a lot of time, energy and water waiting for the water to warm up. In our case that is 40 seconds and 7L per shower. Many homes are much worse than this.
You can get recirculation pumps that pump water from the hot line to the cold line to warm it up but they can be expensive and require a plumber and an electrician. See DIY version below. If your copper hot water line is accessible then for much less cost you can preheat the line without any plumbing changes. In both cases you need a timer and temperature controller so it normally only operates for a short time before 7 a.m. on low cost time of use and only until the water is warm enough to use. The energy used to preheat the line should be less than the water heater would use since the line starts at basement temperature not the really cold incoming water to the tank.
My $50 hot water line preheater system needs only 140 watts for two hours at off peak rates to provide enough hot water for one short shower with a cost of less than 2 cents. Showers normally cost 30-50 cents in water and power. No plumbing changes needed at all. I only turn the hot water tank on if there are more people around. It normally only heats at off peak rates as well. My hot water tank uses 4500 watts.
Perhaps these devices qualify for a rebate as a water saving bathroom fixture as well.
What is your time worth? Wouldn't you rather stay warm in bed another 30 secs+ every day instead of freezing in the shower waiting for the water to get hot?
https://scottsdalerealestate.com/save-on-water-and-time-in-arizona/
Electric tankless makes no sense at all if you can heat off peak with a timer.
If your hot water line is not accessible because your shower is on the second floor and the hot water tank is in the basement you can still mount a small recirculation pump under the sink upstairs.
Before you make any changes, to test how much faster the water in the shower will get hot, before you shower, turn on the hot water faucet in the sink until it gets hot. Then turn on the hot water in the shower to see how much faster it could be. Measure how much time and water you waste every day waiting for the shower to get hot.
DIY Instant Hot Water Pump $200 - Check out the reviews
https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.instant-hot-water-recirculating-system.1000728120.html
It can save up to 15,000 gals per year which is $100/year for those on water only and $250/year for those on water and sewer in Muskoka. In this case the pump mounts above the hot water tank in the basement and the black plastic temperature sensor valve connects the hot to the cold lines under the sink nearest the shower so you don't need power available under the sink. It also comes with a timer.
If the District was really interested in the 3 Rs they would heavily subsidize all these systems to avoid building new multi-million dollar water and sewer plants. They subsidize rain barrels right now but that is an insignificant seasonal saving.
For a no cost way to save 50% of the water and energy used for showers turn off the water while you soap up. Turn the water on to get wet, then off to soap up then on to rinse off. Think of the Caribbean as you get in the habit of saving buckets of cash.
As you can see if you employ all the water saving ideas it's not that hard to cut your water and sewer bills by 50-90%+ and possibly save $1000/year.
Of course you don't pay tax on money you save so saving $1000 is equivalent to earning an extra $1500-$2000 before tax.
Wouldn't you rather put the $1000 toward a trip south in the winter instead of hand it over to the District?
District of Muskoka Conservation
District of Muskoka Conservation
For those on water only if the District tries to force an extremely expensive sewer connection on you it is your Provincial right stop them with a petition as described below. Use a small part of the savings to make most of your water bill go away.
You should easily be able to get down to 0.1 cubic metre (100 litres) per person per day of municipal water.
50 litres per person per day or less is achievable using most of the water conservation ideas.
Electricity Saving
A timer on your electric hot water tank can also save money because it only turns on 1-6 a.m. as well. We are around 88% off peak right now due to timers like this. An Intermatic EH40 will save about $5 per month per daily shower. For the two of us a timer like this saves $120/year. It depends on how much hot water you use. Note! High voltage 240VAC wiring by electrician only!
Check your hot water tank can supply enough hot water when turned off by turning off the breaker just before 7 a.m. then showering. Turn it back on after 7 p.m. Go online and you will see a big green spike in kwh after 7 p.m. instead of a big red spike after 7 a.m. Calculate your savings.Be sure and remember to turn the breaker back on after 7 p.m. or the next morning there will be this really loud, whiny sound coming from the bathroom when someone tries to shower and there is no hot water.
Program the timer so the water is hot for a couple of hours before use in order to sterilize the water and kill the bacteria that can cause Legionnaire's disease. You should not turn your water heater temperature down in order to save energy for this reason. Also a lower temp means you will run out of hot water sooner since you won't be mixing as much cold water with it. Mixing valves after the tank can prevent burns.
https://www.treehugger.com/green-food/is-it-safe-to-turn-down-your-water-heater-temperature.html
Ontario should be giving a big rebate for these timers to shift major power use to the middle of the night when they can't give it away but they would rather build ugly windmills that typically produce less than 30% of their rated output. There are a lot of rebates at greenon.ca but a water heater timer isn't one of them. The future is green but it's the opposite of what Ontario has done.
If you need a new hot water tank consider a heat pump water heater. Heat pumps typically use only 1/3 the power compared to resistance heating. That makes it cheaper to operate than gas.
If you also put a timer on it the operating cost is next to nothing.
They are expensive and make a noise like a refrigerator.
In the US there are large federal, state and utility rebates for these so they can end up being the cheapest type as well. In Canada, not so much for some reason.
In the US large resistance type water heaters aren't allowed any more.
https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/water-heating/heat-pump-water-heaters
Electric heat pump water heater is cheaper to operate than gas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy6WrMlSXk8
Get an energy meter like this one and measure energy use of some of your electrical devices. Remember it's not necessarily your high power devices that are costing you a lot of money. A 1500 watt hair dryer will use far less kwh per day than a 150 watt freezer because the hair dryer is only on for minutes instead of hours per day. This meter records accumulated kwh which is the number that matters.
Desktop pcs can use 100 watts+ just idling or 2.4 kwh per day. Old refrigerators and freezers can also waste a lot of kwh even though the wattage isn't that high.
Building capacity we don't need sounds like something the District would do. See Mayor Furniss comments below after Insanity under Viable Solutions 2. Not only has the District overbuilt water and sewer they only get paid for a small fraction of the volume they process. Rather than fix this MASSIVE UNSUSTAINABLE PROBLEM which is by far the WORST IN ONTARIO they just keep increasing rates for residents.
14,000 abandoned windmills like this in the U.S. Soon to be Ontario. They have a short lifespan. High cost water and sewer plants will go the same way. It used to be solar was far more expensive than wind. Not any more. Windmills are already obsolete since rooftop solar continues to plunge in price and greatly increase in efficiency. The District wants to keep building windmills. Windmills will join history along with the horse and buggy and steam engine.
Governments keep whining about the cost of infrastructure. Instead of whining they should be accelerating the future which is no infrastructure needed at all for water, sewer and hydro.
The District needs to admit past mistakes and close all the little, toy water and sewer plants they built for millions and millions of dollars that only serve a few hundred users. That's the root of the problem. Any business would have done this years ago. Any business wouldn't have built them in the first place. The District needs to massively cut costs.
One of the toy plants only supplies 34!!! homes. A number of plants typically operate at <25% capacity.
The trend in Ontario is water usage is going down even while population is going up so the future is even lower utilization.
They should pay to get users back onto low cost, efficient septic systems, like most people in Muskoka, and save everyone in Muskoka millions and millions of dollars now and in the future. It's only a matter of time before the little toys all are closed.
They need to stop their futile attempts to bully new users with perfectly operating septic systems to hook up to their old, leaky sewers.
The District keeps whining they have too many plants (18!!!) and too few users. There are actually two solutions. One ineffective way is to try to BULLY a handful of new users to hook up...
As mayor Graydon Smith said "We DON'T have an opportunity to bring new users on to the systems in any way that will affect a positive change". Yet they still voted to BULLY a handful of users to hook up.
Stevens vowed to "get those people" not hooked up. See section 6. below for audio.
Apparently when a municipality gets this far out of control the Province can step in, (they already have as described below), fire top staff for gross mismanagement (see Worst in Ontario at the top, also Mayor Furniss's "Worst in Ontario" comments above the abandoned windmills pic) and appoint someone to get the municipality back under control. Obviously the current staff and councillors are not capable of this.
For documentation of how far District water and sewer is totally out of control read District document CES-9-2011-1. Baysville water and sewer financial disaster is near the end.
For some reason the District's water and sewer department is not tasked with providing environmentally friendly, cost competitive services or remotely follow a budget. 1,130,000 litres of sewage spilled into Muskoka rivers and forests just in the last few years. Not including filling resident's basements with sewage. Costs are by far the worst in Ontario including costs shown on your property tax bill. Baysville water and sewer project was over 4X!! budget. Failure by all measures.
In spite ot total failure councillors keep shoveling more of our tax money at the water and sewer department. They have an unlimited budget.
At least Furniss admitted the District has a massive problem with water and sewer. Unlike Harding. The first part of a solution is admitting there is a problem. Furniss said the District only gets paid for a small fraction of the water and sewer volumes they process. Partly because in Huntsville eavestroughs are connected to sewers. When it rains sewage volumes go way up. That's the only reason Huntsville sewers are sometimes rated running at 100% and they have bypass sewage spills during thaws.
Rather than fix the simple eavestroughs problem for peanuts cost the District is planning to waste tens of millions of dollars. He said the $40-$65 million Huntsville sewer project should be half the size and Muskoka is way overbuilt in water and sewer. $40-65 million could easily balloon to $100 million+ and more than double Muskoka debt and costs for residents. Costs are already, by far, the highest in Ontario. Can be $200/month, higher than even hydro. The Baysville water and sewer project ballooned from $5.3 to $22.4 million!
Perhaps the $1.8 million+ revenue from the Golden Pheasant solar project will be used to reduce services costs for residents. Doubt it.
Rather than continually increasing water and sewer charges, which are already by FAR the highest in Ontario, and burdening residents with District mistakes the water and sewer budget must be drastically slashed until total water and sewer charges are middle of the pack in Ontario. Whatever that takes.
Abandoned, high cost, white elephant, underutilized, obsolete, old, leaky sewer plant
Fun Fact: Believe it or not CO2 emissions are 5X higher from unreliable "green" energy in Ontario because they have to be backed up with reliable gas plants and Ontario is mostly nuclear and hydro.
Power demand has gone DOWN in Ontario from 157 TWh to 132 TWh from 2005 to 2017 partly due to energy conservation like LED lights but also because "green" energy's very high power cost means manufacturers shut down in Ontario to move to New York or Michigan where Ontario sells the same power for 1.5 cents/kwh or less just to get rid of it.
It's FAR cheaper to save a kWh with energy conservation than create a kWh with new generation of any kind.
http://www.ieso.ca/en/Learn/Conservation-and-Energy-Efficiency/Energy-Efficiency-in-Ontario
Clearly a greatly reduced need for extremely expensive hydro.
Ontario's paternalistic approach to green energy has not only been a disaster for residents and businesses but also for the environment. The future is green but it's the opposite of the Liberal's approach.
The future is Zero Net Energy followed by totally off grid for all services. Zero Net Energy is mandatory in California in 2020 for new residential construction, businesses by 2030. Local production and consumption of energy. No windmills, industrial solar or new transmission lines needed. Eliminate new demand instead of create new high carbon "green" production.
Low carbon production (nuclear) is actually reduced to make room for high carbon production (wind, solar and the required natural gas backup). Nuclear responds too slowly to rapid changes in output from wind and solar so it cannot be used to backup wind and solar.
See page 15:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12CG_hh8kv6Msx0vmeb5WKYefvAy3aGhW/view?usp=drivesdk
Tesla Solar Roof shingles, just starting production in Buffalo, aren't noticeable at all. If anything they look better than asphalt shingles since they are made of indestructable glass. If you have to replace your shingles anyway you should consider solar shingles. A solar roof is less expensive than a traditional roof plus high power costs and will last much longer. The warranty is the lifetime of your house. There are two types of tiles/shingles. Expensive ones that produce power and ones that look identical but are cheaper and do not produce power. If you employ zero net energy techniques first then you need fewer expensive tiles/shingles. Most of the time you do not need your entire roof to produce power.
Zero Net Energy (Google it) is the future followed by much more reliable off grid power with the addition of a battery.
ALL outside residential services will be greatly reduced then eliminated.
You can finally tell the District, Bell, Rogers and Hydro to take a hike.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/off-grid-homes-mortages-challenges-1.5389416
Wireless internet will switch from cell towers to much cheaper satellite internet available anywhere in the world. Use it for phone, streaming tv and internet browsing. No dish just a small antenna.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/04/spacex-internet-satellites-elon-musk.html
How much more affluent would you be without any utility bills and much lower property taxes because of no extremely expensive connections? How much more valuable would your house be?
How much less expensive is an unserviced building lot? You can buy a lot of tech for the difference.
Uncompetitive services from the District will hasten a death spiral there too.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/539bk5/its-almost-cheaper-to-go-off-the-grid
Ontario builders will whine Zero Net Energy houses are too expensive but a builder in Edmonton (colder, farther north) is building them now for close to the same price. Ontario should rebate the difference. Ontario pays a rebate of $14,000 now for electric cars. $14,000 for a Zero Net Energy house sounds reasonable.
Ontario Zero Net Energy homes: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/03/21/net-zero-energy-homes-in-ontario-that-produce-as-much-power-as-they-consume_a_23393847/?utm_hp_ref=ca-homepage
https://www.thestar.com/life/homes/2018/06/02/these-new-homes-that-make-the-energy-they-use.html
Watch video here: http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/affordable_net-zero
Zero Net Energy is mandatory for new residential construction in California by 2020, businesses by 2030.
Local rooftop solar production and consumption of energy. Much less reliance on the high cost, unreliable grid.
You could save $10+ each per month in hot water cost if you select the upcoming 2 cents/kwh midnight to 6 a.m. plan and your tank is on a timer. For the two of us that will be $240/year.
Super Off Peak (2 cents/kwh midnight to 6 a.m.) power rates are available now in Barrie. Elsewhere later. Remember only part of your bill is affected by time of use rates. Good luck figuring it out.
https://www.powerstream.ca/innovation/advantage-power-pricing.html
Heating at 2 cents/kwh is much cheaper than gas so expensive gas hot water heaters are obsolete if you can heat primarily at the super off peak time and your power use at other times/higher prices is much lower.
Once batteries drop enough in price you could recharge it at night and power your house for the day from the battery and avoid the very high peak prices. Also handy during the many power failures. Much better than a generator banging away.
Your 100 kwh electric car, charged only at night for 2 cents/kwh could also power your house for 3-4 days during a longer power failure. For $2 plus delivery that's not bad.
Tesla Powerwall battery is available now but it's still pricey. It has already had one round of price reduction and capacity increase. As electric cars become more common the same batteries used for home batteries will drop in price. It may make sense to put in a battery first to shift all your power to super off peak followed by solar panels or solar roof and going totally off grid later. At that time you can forget about time of use rates and use power whenever you feel like it. You can finally say goodbye to hydro's rickety, unreliable grid and stop paying the CEO's $4.5 million salary (10X some other provinces) which increased from $750K when it was decided to start privatizing hydro.
Puerto Rico also has a rickety, unreliable grid that was shredded by hurricane Maria. The greenhouse that had their own off grid system was up and running in no time.
Your own weather-proof, beaver-proof and squirrel-proof system will be far more reliable as well.
Off Grid. To go totally off grid at a reasonable cost you have to do the following in order.
1. Drastically reduce your energy requirements by employing zero net energy techniques. Much better insulation, sealing and windows etc.
2. Use heat pumps for heating and hot water. These cut your electrical requirements by 2/3 compared to resistance heating.
3. Only after 1. and 2. consider a relatively small solar and battery system to go off grid.
No ugly wires that are susceptible to ice and trees.
Hydro's rickety, unreliable system regularly forces us to go off grid with a generator. It's getting worse every year.
After a few, dark days in a row in the winter you may need to charge your residential battery with your car or a generator but it would still be a vast improvement.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/off-grid-homes-mortages-challenges-1.5389416
Rebates
The District should be encouraging more water conservation like the city of Guelph does and preserve existing water and sewer capacity rather than BULLY new users to hook up.
Guelph water facts: "In fact, since 2006, an investment of $10.2 million in water conservation and efficiency programs and resources has resulted in over $40 million in savings from deferred infrastructure projects and related operating costs that would otherwise have been needed to supply our community with drinking water." 4:1 payback is a pretty good deal. See FAQ 5
https://guelph.ca/living/environment/water/water-rates/
Some rebates apply to businesses as well. The University of Guelph was paid a $93,570 rebate for water conservation projects that save $182,150/year.
In 2006 a previous District of Muskoka council stopped forcing mandatory connections citing affordability as well as changes to the Municipal Act making the legality questionable. They chose to create bylaw 2006-40 to provide REBATES for water conservation instead. Now there are no rebates at all.
https://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/3616793-cancel-water-sewer-plan-committee/
The dinosaurs that inhabit the current council have voted to restart enforcing mandatory connections and BULLY residents to hook up even though the cost is much higher than in 2006. Perhaps they will soon be extinct and the next council after the election in 2018 will reverse this just like residents forced the District to reverse their sewer expansion plans many times. Don't be in a big hurry to connect if the District sends you a letter bullying you to hook up. Before the next election be sure and check with your councillor and mayor if they are one of the bullies that voted to restart forcing mandatory connections. The majority of them did. How they all voted is recorded on video. For the link scroll down to just below the circus clowns.
Innisfil gives a $100 rebate for low flow toilets.
https://innisfil.ca/living/InnServices/WaterConservation/ToiletReplacementProgram
Switching from 13L to 3L per flush toilets could save 20%+ of the variable parts of your water and sewer bills.
Putting all these systems in could cut water and therefore sewer volumes 50%+.
Outdoor water use can easily more than double your usage for part of the year.
3L per flush toilet $260 Eligible for highest municipal toilet rebate. No leaky flapper. Space saving narrow tank.
http://leedreno.blogspot.ca/2011/05/proficiency-canadas-most-efficient.html
The future is a greatly reduced need for extremely costly (by FAR the highest in Ontario) District water and sewer services followed by no need at all.
Once you employ all the water saving techniques described you will find the amount of potable water you actually need is very small. You could treat a portion of the water from your rainwater/snow melt harvesting system and take drinking water from the air like dehumidifiers do. Tightly sealed Zero Net Energy houses can have a problem with excess humidity so drinking water could be removed from the air upstream of the required air exchanger. Heat pumps for hot water and heating/air conditioning use 1/3 the electricity and produce water as well. Drilling an expensive well should not be necessary.
Your potable water could be produced from the air using a system like this:
or eventually this:
http://news.mit.edu/2017/MOF-device-harvests-fresh-water-from-air-0414
The District should be encouraging residents to conserve water like the city of Guelph does and DISCONNECT from services where possible and preserve existing water and sewer capacity only for those who absolutely have no other choice. That is the future.
Barrie pays up to $2000 to DISCONNECT drains from the sewer.
Water and sewer charges continue to increase
https://www.mymuskokanow.com/66745/district-budget-proposal-push-muskoka-water-bills-new-year/
District of Muskoka Shakedown
District of Muskoka Shakedown
Oct. 28, 2017 Once again another sewage spill. Mysterious, unexplained cause.
District of Muskoka Eviction due to exorbitant connection charges
District of Muskoka Eviction YouTube version: https://youtu.be/sKT4CuUOLoI
Lori-Lynn for Mayor of Bracebridge. Unlike the mayors, she tirelessly fights FOR residents AGAINST the District of Muskoka BULLY.
THE DISTRICT OF MUSKOKA BULLY - CONNECT OR ELSE...
THE DISTRICT OF MUSKOKA BULLY - CONNECT OR ELSE...
YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/wZqcjfWJRb0
The District is seriously broken.
For more evidence of bullying by the District see Section 6. below.
Prince Edward County has reduced connection costs to encourage (not force) residents to hook up.
http://www.quintenews.com/2017/06/county-water-sewer-rates-go-plans-get-users-revealed/150057/
Kawartha Lakes backs off forcing mandatory connections. Muskoka should take notice.
https://www.mykawartha.com/news-story/8914547-mandatory-connection-only-when-water-or-sewer-fails/
District of Muskoka Bullies prefer baseball bats. With spikes.
July 17, 2017 Council votes to RESTART enforcing mandatory connections. A previous council STOPPED this action in 2006 because connections are FAR too expensive and the authority to force connections was REMOVED by the Province.
http://www.mymuskokanow.com/62540/muskokans-dont-connect-mandatory-water-sewer-services/
https://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/3616793-cancel-water-sewer-plan-committee/
Obviously most councillors just wanted to quickly vote so they could get back to making balloon animals.
Duben (CAO) and Stevens (finance) are hilarious. They are counting on councillors not reading any documents or the Municipal Act. Sadly, they are right.
One member of council, so far, has already confirmed/admitted they haven't actually read the bylaw before voting for it.
There is NOTHING in the bylaw preventing the District from forcing a 91 year old resident to pay $33,000+ to connect to the District's OLD, LEAKY sewer system.
What they think it says and what it actually says are very different. The bylaw is such an error filled mishmash it's not surprising.
You have to read the previous two versions plus two Municipal Act versions for a total of 5 documents to try to figure out what it says.
Resident's lawyers will tear it to pieces. Unlike most councillors, lawyers have no problem actually reading documents.
Once again it's time to SHARPEN YOUR PITCHFORKS and light your torches and storm the ASYLUM located at 70 Pine St. Bracebridge.
The DISTRICT MONSTER must be stopped.
District of Muskoka Storm the Asylum
District of Muskoka Storm the Asylum.
Last time it was 67 property owners that STOPPED them. This time there are 500+ property owners the District is attempting to force MILLIONS of $$$ of unnecessary costs on.
June 21, 2017 Engineering and Public Works Meeting
The bylaw is DESIGNED to be confusing so Duben and Stevens can do whatever they want now. THAT is actually what council just voted for. There are NO exclusions for any reason.
Extensions MAY (not shall) be granted, they are AT THE DISCRETION of the District, for example, which means anyone can be rejected for any reason.
The fine for not connecting is 3X more punitive. Julie wanted it to be 10X ($50,000!!!). The District's decision is final!!!
Julie likely has a pile of rejection letters handy right beside the letters to be sent out forcing residents to hook up for massive, UNLIMITED!!! costs.
From discussions at EPW EXCLUSIONS were supposed to be included. Julie is totally against that.
The section of the Act cited actually says the OPPOSITE of what they are claiming.
Check out PW-7-2017-1 here: https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/29818?preview=29838
Or here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1SGwtNTFwZ1hsbnM/view?usp=sharing
On page 3 it quotes 326 (2) from the Municipal Act which says residents can be taxed that "BENEFIT" from a service provided.
"Benefit" is defined as receiving an advantage or profit gained from something.
Clearly sewers are NOT a benefit as they come with huge additional costs, one time at installation and every year after that.
Sewers in Muskoka are actually a DETRIMENT to any property financially as well as a detriment to the environment due to the huge spills of sewage here.
1,130,000 litres in the last few years alone. Just one of those spills was 500,000 litres. Anyone hooked up is contributing to those spills.
This is on top of the huge amount of power and chemicals consumed in the District's 18!!! extremely expensive, little, toy sewer and water plants.
As sewers are NOT a benefit then there is NO authority to tax residents that are not hooked up to them either.
Sewers in Muskoka are NOT a benefit NOR are they necessary or desireable so the District does NOT have the authority to force connections or tax people not connected.
Obviously a property encumbered with extremely high sewer charges plus additional taxes due to sewers is WORTH LESS than an identical property on a low cost, efficient septic system. Councillors still debate that fact believe it or not.
By far the vast majority of residents of Muskoka are now, and always will be, on septic systems.
Refunds
These are the same two EVIL CLOWNS that tried to convince councillors to KEEP almost all of the $300,000 that didn't belong to them that was taken in ERROR from 198 properties in Gravenhurst.
Evil Clowns
This was after they ADMITTED they had NO RIGHT to the money. They also resisted councillor's request to include interest on the money taken in error.
Here was their evil/unethical/illegal recommendation: https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/search?keywords=ces-13-2016-4&page=1&preview=28822
Or here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1RzZ3bXhLWEJnMTA/view?usp=sharing
Notice it's designed to MISLEAD councillors into believing keeping almost all the money is reasonable. More detail and ridiculous video of these clowns is below. See 1. Refunds on water and sewer overbilling
Of course that plan is recommending a FEDERAL crime. The Criminal Code overrides anything in the Municipal Act. The people in Gravenhurst could have just gone to the Orillia OPP to get their money returned.
Scolding the Evil Clowns
That time, at least, councillors were paying attention and SCOLDED these two evil clowns for "inappropriate behaviour" (understatement) for trying to "GET AWAY WITH" keeping most of the money.
See video here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1cEh1TnRqZVdJVjQ/view?usp=sharing
And here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1QVdsWmVwbXZHNnM/view?usp=sharing
91 year old Mel Goltz has also been placed in the wrong tax category but there is no intention to refund his money. Just the people in Gravenhurst. There is no service at his street address. It will cost him $33K+ to blast through solid rock to reach a pipe hundreds of feet away that the District happens to have on another street.
It appears someone is also rewriting/editing the minutes of meetings in order to MISLEAD councillors again and discredit Ms Kaye. Mens Rea.
There are two glaring ERRORS in the June 21 EPW meeting minutes here: https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/29966?preview=29971 or here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1QkJZZlV2bHJRREU/view?usp=sharing
1. Ms Kaye DID NOT say the District's debt is $165 million. She said it's $100 million plus POTENTIAL of another $65 million to be spent on a sewer project in Huntsville.
See near the end of her presentation here: https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/29818?preview=29915 or here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1NnhMVnNtd0lEdkk/view?usp=sharing
Apparently the debt is actually $103 million right now. https://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/6790371-muskoka-and-its-area-municipalities-still-110-million-in-debt-report/
2. Mr. Clow (District solicitor) DID NOT confirm anything in regards to whether or not forcing mandatory connections is legal. He said it's his OPINION that he BELIEVES it is legal. Very different.
Of course he is going to say that. He belongs to the District. He would say the same thing no matter what the District did.
See video at 13:15 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4cwIJ5bU9bkT0RndVhVMkhhVVk/view?usp=sharing "My OPINION" is at 16:00. "I BELIEVE" at 16:20. He was around for all the other illegal activity at the District and said NOTHING.
Note he agrees with Ms Kaye that the authority to force mandatory connections WAS REMOVED from the current Act but his weak argument is basically "but that doesn't mean that we can't".
Apparently, the District thinks, the Province is supposed to specifically list all possible banned municipal actions, not just remove the specific authority as they have done.
The 2001 Act is actually still very specific with mandatory connections in 86. 1(d). Only if asked by the resident in writing. Read it yourself. Link is below.
The District's legal opinion is WORTHLESS.
RESIDENTS in Westvale and McCrank in Bracebridge were 100% CORRECT in their legal interpretation of Provincial Regulations (confirmed by the Province) and the District was 100% WRONG in regards to their ILLEGAL ATTEMPT to force a sewer project in those neighbourhoods.
That shows how DESPERATE the District is to get people hooked up to their OLD, LEAKY sewer system.
CogecoTV video of the District ADMITTING to and "apologizing" for their legal error is here at 1:45: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPMOnjZytrE
"I apologize for the error, it means that officially from a LEGAL standpoint there is not a local improvement process initiated from this point on".
District of Muskoka ADMITS TO BREAKING THE LAW desperately trying to force sewers on residents.
The remedy for that action is still outstanding.
At 2:25 "Literally WE ARE IMPOSING FEES ON RESIDENTS they may or MAY NOT HAVE THE ABILITY TO PAY..."
Duben denied this occurred and said "but we didn't follow through with it". As Duben knows it's not necessary for residents to have made payments as a result of the District's illegal actions.
Just the fact residents were AT RISK of making payments as a result of the District's ILLEGAL ACTIONS is sufficient for charges to be laid. Mens Rea.
In our case the payments totalled $1.273+ million. Significantly above $5,000 and $1 million. THREE laws were broken by the District that time. If a resident had done the same thing they would be in jail. See below.
The problem is, it turns out, it seems the District OWNS the local OPP so they won't bite the hand that funds them.
Don't waste your time locally, you have to go to Orillia or elsewhere. Investigations take a really long time. The local OPP also has issues following the law anyway as covered in Macleans nationally and confirmed by a judge recently.
It's really not surprising District staff is recommending proceeding with legally questionable actions again.
Staff is recommending the District pick another fight with residents on Monday, July 17.
It seems residents are prepared to fight back with lawyers this time. Whatever it takes.
The District voted to illegally proceed against us Feb. 2015. It took until Mar. 2016 to get their actions totally reversed.
DON'T assume anything the District does is LEGAL.
DON'T assume there is nothing you can do and DON'T hand over your hard earned cash to the District.
This is just the START of another battle the District has lost many times before.
Before the next election, be sure and ask your mayor and councillor if they voted to force massive, unnecessary costs on residents July 17, 2017. Most of them need to go, along with some top level staff, obviously.
District of Muskoka Circus
District of Muskoka Circus
This CIRCUS has been in town FAR too long. Most of them only represent the interests of the District, NOT residents.
Video to check their answer follows. The District rarely records votes. They prefer to make decisions ANONYMOUSLY.
Vote is near the end of the video here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1a3YxVVRIN0tvWjA/view?usp=sharing
Connections are actually now VOLUNTARY not MANDATORY per the Municipal Act 2001.
Only if asked by the resident in writing.
Once again the District is planning to VIOLATE Provincial Law.
New Mandatory Connection bylaw is here. https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/29629?preview=29674
Note that it ONLY reflects Julie Steven's presentation CES-3-2017-2 NOT what was recommended by EPW, in particular EXCLUSIONS.
If it cost you $150,000 to hook up because the District happens to have a sewer pipe a kilometre from your house then Julie Stevens would be fine with that.
She recommended a $50,000 penalty if you don't hook up. 10 times the current penalty of $5,000.
Ramming through this oppressive bylaw without debate, bypassing EPW and combining it with a vote on other benign bylaws was attempted at May 15, 2017 council. LUCKILY this attempt was found out and the decision deferred.
Section 11 of the Municipal Act 2001 DOES NOT give the District the authority to force connections and they know it.
Just like the previous council knew it so they cited the obsolete 1990 Act instead, which USED TO give that authority, in the 2007 bylaw. Read Section 11 and 86 of the Act yourself here:
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/01m25/v13#BK36
In the 2001 Municipal Act in Section 86 (1)(d) under Specific Municipal Powers it states connections when asked by residents in writing.
The District has voted to attack another group of residents. It's on. Again.
How bad is it that the local cartoonist knows more about the Municipal Act than the highly paid clowns at the District?
District of Muskoka Connections
District of Muskoka Connections YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/Et7l99iIFvQ
See Mandatory Connections section below for documentation links to the Act.
The District still needs to correct their little bylaw to reflect the current Provincial Act.
Obviously what is MANDATORY is a lot of changes at the District. Personnel and otherwise.
The previous, law abiding, sympathetic, District Council stopped FORCING connections altogether a long time ago.
Mar. 30, 2017 CES-EPW Meeting
There were two parts to the meeting.
Part 1 Refunds on water and sewer overbilling by the District for over 11 years on 198 properties in Gravenhurst.
Part 2 Restarting enforcing mandatory water and sewer connections for those available to hook up otherwise known as "Forced Connections".
1. Refunds on water and sewer overbilling
Update April 23, 2017 Money is to be returned with interest.
Thanks go out to Lori-Lynn, Bob Young and Don Smith for doing the right thing and convincing Council to return the money taken in error PLUS interest. Perhaps Julie and Michael will learn from this. Doubt it.
Video link for the Mar. 30: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1M0RFUUFrT01EdXc/view?usp=sharing
At 2:00 Lori-Lynn stated that the refunds should include INTEREST as well.
Notice Julie laughed at the suggestion, at first. Very disrespectful.
Eye Roll
At 4:05 Michael Duben BLAMED RESIDENTS!!! for not noticing the District's tax error as justification for NOT including interest on the refund as they DID with the District's faulty water meters.
Notice this was after Julie Stevens tried to say the District DOESN'T!!! pay interest (they just did a few months earlier)
as she was quoted here:
“Basically, we’ve always said, ‘If you owe us money, we’ll charge you interest, but if we owe you money, you’re not getting any interest,’” said Stevens."
District staff say the darndest things. What is wrong with some District staff? Is lack of integrity a job requirement? Along with a very short memory? Do they really expect councillors to just rubber stamp everything they come up with, no matter how unfair and sometimes illegal?
These are the same two people that originally recommended only refunding 1 year of an up to 20 year error and then ONLY to those who found the error and complained, NOT everyone, and presented it to councillors as if this was a reasonable recommendation.
In fact, in the faulty water meters case the District had no part in reporting incorrect water usage but they supplied residents with faulty meters.
The District is ENTIRELY responsible for incorrect taxation so if interest was paid for faulty water meters much higher interest is due for the tax errors.
Including interest was NOT one of the options presented to council by finance. No surprise there. You can bet interest WOULD be included if a resident owed the District.
If the District hadn't mistakenly taken the resident's money it could have been invested or used to avoid a debt so of course interest is owing.
The District keeps making mistakes so a penalty of interest should provide motivation for "enhanced customer service" as Graydon Smith said.
A fair interest rate on the refund would be the same as the District charges residents for late water and sewer payments.
2. Restarting enforcing mandatory water and sewer connections
Video link for the above: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1NDcwYTA3WGthODQ/view?usp=sharing
At 00:25 John Klinck "I hate it when a higher authority tells me it's mandatory"
At 5:50 Lori-Lynn responds to the recommendation. "those people may lose their home"
At 7:10 Environment Fee suggestion.
At 11:00 Lori-Lynn "mandatory, what a terrible word... we should be finding another way to finance the water and sewer"
It came up multiple times that the main reason for forcing sewer connections was for the environment.
In fact, in spite of Muskokans paying, by far, the highest water and sewer charges in Ontario the District's OLD, LEAKY system has a very POOR record environmentally. Total cost can be $200/month including charges shown on your property tax bill. $100/month even if you have no usage at all. Higher than even hydro!
1,130,000 litres of sewage has been spilled into Muskoka rivers and forests just in the last few years by the District's extremely expensive sewer system. Not counting filling resident's basements with sewage.
Perhaps the District should get their system under control environmentally and financially before contemplating suggesting anyone else hook up.
Anyone hooked up now is contributing to all these spills, unlike those on septic systems.
It's great for the environment that 80% of Muskoka residents are on their own independent septic systems and always will be.
NOT the District's old, leaky, crumbling sewer systems.
District of Muskoka Sewage Spills
District of Muskoka Recent Sewage Spills
Following is a list of recent sewage spills the District has admitted to. Is this all of them? Are the amounts correct?
It turns out spills don't really have to be reported and almost no one measures the amounts. Just a guess.
"only 159 of the 269 municipal water systems that are required to report sewage leaks actually did so".
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/08/13/canada-sewage-leaks_a_23501142/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/wastewater-sewage-lakes-rivers-canada-election-1.5267326
For those who used to be on septic and the District forced you to hook up to their old, leaky sewer it makes sense to protect the environment and DISCONNECT and go back to your septic system and stop contributing to all the sewage spills.
Over the next 30 years the average cost of sewers could be $3,000/year for 30 years or $90K. Switching back to septic will cost about $8K and you are good for 30 years. Could you use an extra $82K? Good luck with that one.
BaysvilleSewage Spill 400,000 litres Oct. 25-30, 2019 At 37:00 here http://video.isilive.ca/muskoka/epw%202019-11-20.mp4.html
Bracebridge Sewage backup Jul. 25, 2018 https://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/8762478-sewage-temporarily-closes-doors-of-alzheimer-society-of-muskoka/
Huntsville Sewage backup Nov 3, 2017 https://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/7771871-sewage-repair-delays-leave-huntsville-tenants-backed-up/
Huntsville Sewage backup Oct. 28, 2017 https://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/7935916-system-failure-causes-sewage-backup-into-homes-shops-in-huntsville/
Huntsville Sewage Spill 500,000 litres Aug. 10, 2016 http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/6803897-broken-pipe-leads-to-sewage-spill-in-huntsville/
Huntsville Sewage Spill 88,000 litres Mar. 31, 2016 http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/6516647-disinfected-poop-spills-from-sewage-plants-as-flood-hits-huntsville/
Bracebridge Sewage Spill 142,000 litres Dec. 15, 2014 http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/5321920-sewage-lagoon-springs-a-leak/
- click on PW-2-2015-9 Sewage Spill Event Bracebridge Septage Lagoon Facility
https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/25386?preview=25398
It's crazy that municipalities collect sewage and pump it many kms only to dump it into forests, rivers, lakes or someone's front lawn or basement. Sometimes every time it rains.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/paradise-sewage-jim-clark-1.5263805
There are now FAR more modern, FAR less expensive ways to deal with sewage that are FAR better for the environment than sewer systems.
Some cottages are leading the way.
http://thehighlander.ca/2019/05/30/new-toilets-are-bringing-the-heat-to-haliburton/
Waterless Toilet - No sewer or septic system connection needed
Waterless Toilet - No sewer or septic system connection needed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWBOa7PVyV4
https://www.cinderellaeco.com/ca/articles/what-is-an-incineration-toilet/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rdkGUFzvfc
http://www.testfakta.com/test/the-wrong-toilet-in-a-holiday-home-increases-heating-costs/
For your new house instead of spending $50K+ for municipal connections plus $200/month forever for services only to be crammed together on teeny, tiny lots build on a much cheaper, much larger unserviced lot with your own FAR superior, independent systems. The City of Guelph will pay thousands of dollars to get you off their systems.
Just like we are moving toward zero net energy homes followed by off grid we should be moving toward greatly reduced water and sewer demand followed by off grid for those as well.
Zero net energy is mandatory for new houses in California starting next year.
District of Muskoka Water Systems are crumbling as well.
District of Muskoka Water Systems are crumbling as well.
https://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/8047592-update-water-main-break-in-port-carling-jan-11/
Funny how they agonize and debate at length and then CANCEL SMALL tax and sewer rate increases for some residents because residents CAN'T AFFORD them but then have no problem FORCING MASSIVE, financially devastating $30,000+ costs on other residents.
And then PUNISH those who don't hook up with a proposed, new $50,000 fine that is 10 times the current fine.
What an INCONSISTENT and disappointing bunch making random, often crippling, sometimes ILLEGAL decisions against residents of Muskoka.
District of Muskoka Insanity
District of Muskoka Insanity
Very large, random mood swings from sympathetic to EVIL and malicious are also indicative of INSANITY as was documented in the Grinch story below.
The District has been mentally ill since at least 2015. Aggressive treatment is MANDATORY to prevent further malevolent actions.
Perhaps their pain (and resident's pain) will be eased somewhat after the next municipal election.
See penalties page of Julie's plan to squeeze more cash from residents. CES-3-2017-2.
https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/29426?preview=29458
Perhaps the current council will cancel their plans to proceed for affordability/legal reasons and be consistent with the precedent set by a previous sympathetic, sane, non-bipolar council.
http://m.muskokaregion.com/news-story/3616793-cancel-water-sewer-plan-committee
Viable Solutions
Muskoka has $100M debt plus potential of another $65M to be spent on a Huntsville sewer expansion.
Clearly "heavy handedly" forcing a handful of users onto the system makes no significant difference to servicing the above.
It must also be considered attempting to force another 1700 users onto the system via local "improvements" is also likely to fail as residents can stop these projects via petition as was done in Westvale and McCrank last year and 3 other areas of Muskoka previously.
Just like other municipalities in Ontario the District is facing massive infrastructure requirements. Now is the time to realize sewers in Muskoka are OPTIONAL infrastructure, unlike bridges and roads. New development should allow much lower cost independent sewage treatment systems like septic systems, even in town. The large resorts around the lakes know how to do this.
Two actual viable solutions have already been suggested. Who is working on these?
1. Environmental Fee
Once the District gets the sewer system under control environmentally and stops dumping sewage into Muskoka rivers, forests and resident's basements as listed above, an environmental fee could be imposed Muskoka wide to cover sewers.
This is not a new idea. www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/3632929-water-sewer-costs-keep-rising/
The sewer system only services a very small fraction of residents in Muskoka so a small fee across all residents will have a very positive effect at servicing the above.
2. Charge for all water and sewage processed by the District and cut back flows/costs
Currently the District gets paid for only a fraction of the water and sewage processed.
At the Dec. 19 council meeting Don Furniss, stated that the $65 million expansion in Huntsville should probably be half the size for the following reasons.
He said the District gets paid for 2.6 million cubic meters of water but processes 4.0 million cubic meters. Sewer is even worse. They get paid for 2.3 million cubic meters but process 4.3 million cubic meters.
The relative size of processed vs paid volume is far higher than the rest of Ontario. He said one reason for this is in Huntsville a lot of people have have storm drains illegally hooked up to sewers.
The District has created water and sewer systems that are UNSUSTAINABLE (as Graydon Smith said) that are out of control cost wise, operationally and environmentally.
Dec. 19, 2016 council audio.
At 10:30 Graydon Smith followed by Phil Harding and Karin Terziano concurring.
At 14:50 Don Furniss "...we have ovedesigned the systems...nobody could run a business...there is a lot of room for efficiency improvement"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1OEpMcmtIN0NBUTQ/view?usp=sharing
Media coverage:
District of Muskoka Eviction due to exorbitant sewer charges
District of Muskoka Eviction YouTube version: https://youtu.be/sKT4CuUOLoI
Dec. 19, 2016 Council Meeting
Heather Kaye was a delegate representing 91 year old Bracebridge resident Mel Goltz with his mandatory sewer connection issue with the District. Ms Kaye is one of the Bracebridge residents from the McCrank and Westvale areas that the District illegally tried to force sewers on last year.
The District expects Mr. Goltz to hook up to sewers even though there is no sewer pipe in the road at his street address. They have already switched him to Urban Service Area A and increased his taxes over $680 a year without any communication.
The District expects Mr. Goltz to disable his fully functioning septic system, install a problematic low pressure pump, blast through 220 ft of solid rock, uphill, to reach a sewer pipe located on Keall Crescent in the Covered Bridge area of Bracebridge and hook up to the District's OLD, LEAKY, poorly maintained sewer system for a total cost of $33,530.
For a complete cost comparison of sewer vs septic see section 4 below. Even if the sewer hookup was entirely FREE it makes sense to stay on septic as just the additional yearly cost of sewers is equivalent to a new septic bed every 6 years or so.
In Muskoka, sewer hookup charges and additional yearly charges are FAR beyond reasonable and FAR beyond comparable to septic.
The last place you want to be is downhill from a sewer pipe as some residents in Bracebridge found out this past year.
The District is using their mandatory connection bylaw 2007-24. Perhaps councillors should question staff why the 2007 mandatory connection bylaw references the obsolete 1990 Municipal Act. The current Act is 2001. For a detailed explanation look under Mandatory Connections below. Bylaw is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1cVk3Zk0yVFlLbWM/view?usp=sharing
Speaking Notes - Mandatory Connections - Heather Kaye: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1dldzVGdnT192bUE/view?usp=sharing
Presentation Slides - Mandatory Connections - Heather Kaye: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1OUhxTEVfb1gxNzQ/view?usp=sharing
Audio of the Engineering and Public Works part of the meeting is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1OEpMcmtIN0NBUTQ/view?usp=sharing
Listen to comments regarding sewer rate increases starting at 9:30.
Councillor Baker had the gall to suggest token hydro cost "relief" in the new year due to elimination of the 8% PST on hydro should be spent on sewer rate increases. The facts are hydro went up 10% Jan. 1, 2016 due to the elimination of the "green energy benefit", they went up 4% again in May and have gone up over 80% in the last decade so now Ontario has the highest cost in Canada by far. Any token reduction will be swallowed up in new carbon cap-and-trade taxes starting Jan 2017 on gasoline and heating oil and natural gas. In fact everything that requires oil or gas to produce, deliver or manufacture will go up. Hydro rates are so high some residents in Ontario have to choose between hydro or food. 567,000 are behind in their bills, 60,000 have been disconnected. It's extremely insensitive and callous to suggest a token reduction should be spent on the District's also extraordinarily expensive sewer system.
Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith shot back that "incrementalism is an insidious little devil" and the District's sewers are "UNSUSTAINABLE today" so he will not support higher rate increases suggested by councillor Baker. Engineering and Public Works Chair Harding and Huntsville Deputy Mayor Terziano concurred with Mayor Smith's comments.
At 14:50 Muskoka Lakes Mayor Don Furniss said "we have overdesigned the systems", "we should be building a plant probably that is half the size of the one contemplated", "I can't support councillor Baker".
It seems councillor Baker is one of the few left that are for sewer expansion no matter what the cost.
Nov 23, 2016
There was a joint Engineering and Public Works - Corporate and Emergency Services meeting regarding Tax Levies for Sewer and Water that have been charged in error since 1999 or longer in some cases on 162 properties. 3 delegates from Gravenhurst presented. They all made very strong statements.
One delegate wondered "what his next punishment will be" at the hands of the District. He assumed he would "probably not live long enough" before he saw a resolution. The District was offering a refund of only $600 on an $8500 error they had made, as he said "not even close to fair".
The District admitted the errors but was planning on only refunding one year's worth of overcharging and keeping the rest believe it or not. The District was also going to refund only those who found the error not everyone. Refunds are "complaint driven" not ethics driven.
The District really showed their true colours at that meeting. The rumours are true. A lot of them are only doing what's best for the District NOT residents. Wow. They are operating far below a minimum acceptable standard. What a disappointing and embarrassing group.
They plan on ATTACKING another 500 property owners with financially devastating charges soon. They vote to proceed with the attack Dec. 19. For suggestions on STOPPING them see Mandatory Connections below. You have to be very proactive and GO NUCLEAR.
They "don't know why" residents were charged in error.
Obviously, not only should ALL the money charged in error be returned but also including interest for a very long time. Any kid in a sandbox knows that's the right thing to do. OK, maybe not the interest part.
Short forms found on your final tax bill: USA=Urban Service Area type A=service available $$$ type B=service not available $
The District expects you to check your tax bill yourself. You cannot assume any of it is correct. Any error they make that you don't find, they believe, they can keep most of the overcharges. There is no incentive for the District to bill correctly when they can just keep most of the proceeds of errors.
It turns out errors are a very lucrative source of income at the District that they want to protect.
Copies of the delegates presentations are here: Click on Written Comments: https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/28817
or one is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1ZFlnX0RJTmxtS0k/view?usp=sharing
Note very little time was allowed for residents to respond. That is a tactic the District used against Bracebridge residents last year. See section 6 below.
Here is video of Lake of Bays Mayor Bob Young SCOLDING staff: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1cEh1TnRqZVdJVjQ/view?usp=sharing
Here is video of Lori-Lynn's (deputy chair) response: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1QVdsWmVwbXZHNnM/view?usp=sharing
There is also an elderly gentleman in Bracebridge that has been forced to pay new sewer charges recently that were added to his property taxes (without any notice). Soon he will also have to pay a huge amount to hook up to unwanted sewers, which would be financially devastating as cancelled projects in Bracebridge and Huntsville were previously. Lori-Lynn also pleaded for his charges to be refunded and that he is exempt from hooking up.
Here is a link to the District's staff recommended plan to "get away with" only refunding one year of the multi-year error. Report CES-13-2016-4. THEFT is actually a federal offence. The Criminal Code overrides anything in the provincial Municipal Act. Mens Rea.
https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/search?keywords=ces-13-2016-4&page=1&preview=28822
or here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1RzZ3bXhLWEJnMTA/view?usp=sharing
Notice that the document does NOT clearly say the recommendation is to refund only 1 year of a 20 year error and keep the rest. Read it yourself. It seems to be DESIGNED TO MISLEAD councillors into believing a 1 year refund is reasonable so they would vote to support it. We believe that's why Mayor Bob Young had to ask for clarification before scolding staff for recommending "inappropriate behaviour".
LUCKILY residents noticed the error and contacted councillors directly themselves with the facts and the councillors spoke up. Councillors are part time and may not have time to find out the actual facts. They always incorrectly assume staff are giving them complete and reasonable information.
One way for the District to clear their huge debt and massively increase profits is to increase everyone's taxes in error and only refund one year's worth to those who notice and complain about the error as was the plan here. Maybe they are already doing that.
They could start with a small amount so no one notices then increase it every year by that amount so it looks correct. It was a surprise to some who attended the meeting that the District demonstrated they have no ethics. It is not a surprise to the delegates who presented or anyone else who has dealt with them particularly regarding sewer and water issues.
They also seem to have no intention of following the Municipal Act or any other laws as described on the rest of this website. In fact they have written policies that directly conflict with laws, in particular policy AD:22. The fact that policy is illegal was pointed out to them earlier this year but it still exists. They are likely just waiting to attack another neighbourhood with it.
In the past when they tried to put in sewers legally they were stopped by a poll of residents in Bracebridge and Huntsville. See section 3 below.
Last year they tried ILLEGALLY to force sewers in Bracebridge by not taking a poll first but were stopped by residents anyway. More than one law was broken that time. It's all documented.
For all those interested, the Ontario Regs that were broken 586/06 Part II: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/060586#BK7
Section 6.(2)(a) inform residents of the total cost. Only a fraction of the total cost was quoted. They did the same in Huntsville previously. Mens Rea.
In order for residents to make an informed decision on whether or not to sign the petition the total cost or at least a range needs to be quoted. The letter to residents seems to be designed to mislead residents about the cost so some would accept it. Mens Rea. Some people, including the media, still don't realize the cost quoted is only a fraction of the total.
We had to find out the total cost and inform residents ourselves.
(g)(i) inform residents of their right to petition against the project. Choosing to not inform us of our right to petition against them this time was/is an infuriating action. Mens Rea. They cited the reg. that was broken and admitted to and "apologized" for that one in a public meeting on TV. LUCKILY we found out our rights and did a poll anyway entirely on our own.
See 1:30 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPMOnjZytrE
7.(1) they have to stop the project when they received the sufficient petition which was Dec. 17, 2015.
They discussed the legal requirement of stopping for two years but then just shrugged it off. Video of that discussion is elsewhere on the website. Scroll down and look after Mar. 21, 2016 for the second RECKLESS DISREGARD. Mens Rea.
Logically next time they will likely just put the pipe in the road, as has been suggested, enter your property and disable your septic system and forcibly connect you to their OLD LEAKY system without any notice. The financially devastating charges will be put on your taxes and if you don't pay they will seize your property and sell it. That would be a really effective way to meet their priority of debt reduction. Illegal? Unethical? Sure, but so are a number of other actions by the District. If you see the District digging around your road or front lawn be sure and ask them what they are doing. See mandatory connections below.
Following the law would conflict with their Strategic Priorities of "Building Financial Strength" and "Debt Reduction" on the backs of residents because they "would never put in another sewer line". Note providing cost competitive services for residents is NOT one of the priorities. They may "recognize the need" for affordable rates but that would conflict with the debt reduction priority so forget that. Muskoka is among the highest sewer and water rates in Ontario.
Another laughable Stategic Priority found at the end of a lot of documents is "Continue to provide ... sewage treatment systems... of a high environmental standard". If that includes collecting resident's sewage and then dumping it in Muskoka lakes, forests and resident's basements to the tune of 730,000 litres in the last couple of years alone then, yes, they are continuing to do that. Muskoka sewage spills are documented in section 5 below.
The root of the problem they created is the District chose to overbuild sewage handling capacity in the misguided belief everyone possible should be on sewers no matter what the cost. The resulting $100+ million debt means they are desperate to get people hooked up or at least paying for sewers even if they aren't hooked up. Whether they do that legally, illegally, ethically or unethically as detailed here doesn't matter. Desperate people often make really bad decisions.
There are actually TWO solutions to a debt problem that all residents are familiar with but not government organizations. One is to force an increase in income. The second is to CUT COSTS, and especially you do NOT take on massive new debt as the District is planning to do.
As stated previously below, a mandatory course on basic human ethics would be a big improvement for all District employees.
Aug 10, 2016 Yet Another Muskoka sewage spill. This time 500,000!!! litres in Huntsville again. http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/6803897-broken-pipe-leads-to-sewage-spill-in-huntsville/
And the District has the audacity to try to illegally force people to hook up to their OLD, LEAKY system. Anyone hooked up is contributing to all these sewage spills.
"sewage had seeped non-continuously from the pipe for about 36 hours." Wow.
Crews deployed in May it is now August-10-2016 WOW that is some transparency District of Muskoka, same old hide and tell later story.
Upper management needs a through house cleaning you don't hide this type of environmental contamination from people! Hold on DOM forgot that part. Typical.
June 30, 2006 Cancel water-sewer plan:committee http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/3616793-cancel-water-sewer-plan-committee/
Muskoka has one of the highest water and sewer rates in Ontario. Rates that are also rapidly increasing. This situation is not sustainable.
In fact, way back in 2007, the District just about met the Provincial definition of UNSUSTAINABLE water and sewer systems. This is before a string of massive fee increases in the years since. Clearly the District needs to employ lower cost "alternative solutions" to their current unsustainable water and sewer projects as recommended in the report. Like, for example, septic systems.
See page 32 of this report CES-2-2007-2 https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/search?keywords=ces-2-2007-2&page=1&preview=516
or here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1bjJaMTdvUDJvVGs/view?usp=sharing
Clearly the District of Muskoka is not capable of providing cost competitive services in these areas so as per the committee recommendation in 2006 ALL their expansion plans need to be CANCELLED.
Based on all the sewage leaks recently they are also not capable of maintaining the existing systems either.
Also the current bylaws regarding mandatory connections or any other bylaw FORCING huge, financially devastating, costs on residents need to be SCRAPPED.
MANDATORY CONNECTIONS ARE ALSO ILLEGAL
Here is their latest plan: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1aXZKaFRIWnJwd2s/view?usp=sharing
For the 500 property owners the District is planning to attack now with their mandatory connection bylaw you have to organize and push back very aggressively. You have to be very proactive and GO NUCLEAR. They have no problem picking on individual elderly residents that aren't as likely to fight back. An organized group of 500 is a different story. Do not assume there is nothing you can do. Plan on attending the Dec. 19 meeting and show your opposition. Select 3 delegates to present at the meeting. Only 3 can speak but you can get your councillors to speak for you as well.
Make sure you get quotes to know the actual total cost to hook up including a back flow valve. You will likely find it's far higher than expected, far higher than maintaining your septic system, far higher than has been reported in the press and far higher than most councillors are aware.
Remember councillors have to choose if they are for residents or for the District. If you don't get a satisfactory response try a different one. Remember they are politicians. One of the mayors and some councillors have made it loud and clear they are for sewers seemingly no matter what the cost. A few are shown in action on video elsewhere on this website.
Here is one councillor's position. Video of her representing those who elected her is elsewhere on this website. She should be as helpful with you as she was with us. http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/6313343-scrap-sewer-connections-until-provincial-funds-found-deputy-chair/
Even with the pipe already in the road you could find your cost to hook up to it is a lot more than $8-12,000 let alone the ongoing additional sewer charges on your water bill.
Unlike other more densely populated parts of Ontario, sewers are just too expensive in Muskoka. Even if the cost of hookup was entirely FREE it makes sense to stay on septic because just the additional yearly charges of sewers here are equivalent to a brand new septic bed every 6 years or so. Most residents are NOT NOW and NEVER WILL BE on sewers. See section 4 and 5 below.
On Dec. 19 councillors can vote to STOP staff from sending out letters to proceed with mandatory connections. That is the best time to stop staff. BEFORE letters are sent out to those targeted. Councillors can vote to REJECT anything staff dreams up. If successful you could have a much better Christmas than we did last year. We felt we were UNDER ATTACK from Dec. 6 to Mar. 21. Our situation has yet to be remedied. Remedies typically take a really long time. That explains our interest in assisting those under attack currently. If it takes a court challenge individually that's a problem but 500 residents funding it should not be a problem.
Start calling councillors now. Emails are even better as there is a record that can be forwarded to others. You have to cover all the councillors listed on the District's website. http://www.muskoka.on.ca/en/district-government/Councillor-Contact-Information.aspx
Don't wait for the meeting. Create a website if you like with a list of councillors names and cut and paste their email responses beside their names so others see it. A lot of them will not want to go on record. They will want you to call instead. Put that response on the website until you get a better one. Instructions on how this website was created are at the bottom.
Let the media know you are fighting back. They were interested in our fight last year. See the Media section of this website.
Remember the responses you get from councillors at election time.
You should go ahead and get quotes to hook your system up to the District's OLD, LEAKY system so you know the total cost before Dec. 19. You may find the total cost EXTREMELY MOTIVATING. If your septic is in the backyard so the pipe has to go all the way around the house and there are rocks, trees or decks in the way your cost could be $40,000+. That assumes a downhill run to the road. If the sewage has to be pumped uphill you have to get an alternate low pressure system which can be nothing but problems. Freezing being one of them. Google "dump the pumps" for examples of problems.
Links to the District's online mandatory connection bylaw are below. Also links to the Municipal Act they must follow, although in Muskoka it seems totally optional. Read the Act sections they are citing in the bylaw. You will either get very angry or start laughing or possibly both.
Do not assume anything the District does is legal, let alone ethical or good for the environment. We found out otherwise ourselves a year ago and stopped them.
If your tax bill says District Sewer A and there is a pipe in the road but you are not hooked up you are likely targeted. You have to be extremely proactive if you receive a letter saying you are targeted. Do not let anyone touch your fully functional septic system.
The legality of enforcing mandatory connections was even questioned by the District's CES commissioner in 2006 but, of course, that hasn't stopped them. Mens Rea. See http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/3616793-cancel-water-sewer-plan-committee/.
Once again the District is passing bylaws and policies that directly conflict with Provincial Law.
Previous to 2001 the Municipal Act allowed municipalities to forcibly connect residents to sewers. Not any more. That Section 222 of the 1990 Municipal Act was deleted in 2001.
The District's 2007 mandatory connection bylaw still refers to the obsolete 1990 Municipal Act instead and says "WAS empowered" to force connections. WAS, as in, USED TO BE. The District is aware the Province deleted that section but continues forcing connections anyway. Mens Rea.
Make sure you are sitting down before reading this, especially sections 4-7. https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/search?keywords=2007-24&preview=2083
or here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1cVk3Zk0yVFlLbWM/view?usp=sharing
Since 2001 the resident has to ask to be connected in writing. Not forced. See 86. (1) (d) below. It's very clear and specific about water and sewer connections. The other sections referred to in the 2007 bylaw say nothing about water and sewer connections. Just 86.(1) below.
Municipal Act 2001
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/01m25#BK96
Mandatory supply
86. (1) Despite section 19, a municipality shall supply a building with a water or sewage public utility if,
(a) the building lies along a supply line of the municipality for the public utility;
(b) in the case of a water public utility, there is a sufficient supply of water for the building;
(c) in the case of a sewage public utility, there is sufficient capacity for handling sewage from the building; and
(d) the owner, occupant or other person in charge of the building requests the supply in writing. 2001, c. 25, s. 86 (1).
Section 86. (1) (d) is not ambiguous at all. It's VERY CLEAR. Connections only if the resident asks in writing.
Quite a few refunds are due. But they will likely just vote to keep them. Just like they planned to keep most of a 20 year Urban Service Area error they admitted to against 162 properties in Gravenhurst.
New developments should have the option of EITHER new lower cost septic systems OR sewers with their associated very high one time and ongoing extra costs. For a new house a septic system is actually a selling feature as monthly water/sewer bills and property taxes are much lower. Sewer backup insurance is not needed. No need for developers to wait many years for a "possible" sewer line.
It's obviously much better for the environment to treat your own very limited amount of sewage with your own septic system than risk having the District dump your sewage along with thousands of other residents' sewage in Muskoka lakes, rivers and forests. 730,000 litres of sewage spilled in the last couple of years alone. This is not counting the 1000s of litres of sewage dumped into a resident's basement recently which destroyed all their belongings. See Section 5 below. Want to know how many litres my septic system has spilled in the last 20 years? ZERO.
Those forced to connect to sewers in the past should have the option of DISCONNECTING from sewers and going BACK to a new septic system and avoid the much higher ongoing costs of sewers and threat of sewer backup and contributing to all the sewage spills in Muskoka from the District's OLD, LEAKY system.
The District need to learn what the "servant" part of "civil servant" means. A mandatory course on basic ethics, civics, the 2001 Municipal Act and sensitivity training would be a big improvement for all District employees, councillors and legal staff as well.
The vast majority of residents of Muskoka are NOT NOW, and NEVER WILL BE on sewers. See Section 5 below.
Mar. 31, 2016 Another Muskoka sewage spill. Second one in 15 months. This time 88,000 litres in Huntsville. http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/6516647-disinfected-poop-spills-from-sewage-plants-as-flood-hits-huntsville/
So the District decides to cut the sewage handling capacity by 1/3 right before the highest flow rate of the year. This spill was entirely predictable. That's one way to try to get funds from the feds.
If the District of Muskoka is really concerned about the environment at all they should spend some time on their OLD, LEAKY sewage treatment systems instead of illegally attempting to force residents to connect to them.
Links to Bracebridge spill Dec. 2014 142,000 litres are in section 5.
Mar. 28, 2016 Added section 12. You too can create a website. It's as easy as creating an email
Mar. 23, 2016 The bullying, vindictive relationship the District has with residents, documented in Section 6 below, is now starting to rub off on a Town of Bracebridge councillor.
Mark Quemby suggested at the March 23 Bracebridge council meeting that one way for the District to FORCE residents to hook up to sewers would be for the town to not issue septic upgrade permits.
The Town of Bracebridge has nothing to do with sewers.
See council meeting video at about 93 minutes after Don Smith here: http://download.isiglobal.ca/bracebridge/archive_2016-03-23.mp4.html
Note that the Town of Bracebridge is complying with the open and transparent requirement by webcasting meetings online.
The District of Muskoka prefers to make decisions for/against residents ANONYMOUSLY. Vote recording is not normally done either. Councillors can just deny their involvement in disasters this way.
Only audio of meetings is available since Nov. 2015 if you go and pick up a copy of the file on a USB stick.
There was a report to District Council about webcasting two years ago in March of 2014. https://muskoka.civicweb.net:/document/23877/Report%20No.%204(2014)-1%20-%20Strategy%20Corp.%20Inc.%20Recommendation%20OE3%20-%20Possible%20Webcasting%20of%20Meetings.pdf
In the report it was suggested that webcasting would be beneficial to the majority of residents that are seasonal. This report was dropped. It's not surprising from the District's behaviour.
How are seasonal and permanent residents supposed to make informed decisions at the next municipal election when there is no record at all of their councillor's positions?
Mar. 21, 2016 Entire council votes to CANCEL sewer project. It's finally over.
Our next steps to remedy the situation are taking a long time but that is to be expected for very serious occurences. Whatever it takes.
We are surprised it's entirely up to residents to make sure a municipality doesn't violate the Municipal Act or other laws and it's entirely up to residents to make sure there are consequences when they do. So be it.
The bullying, vindictive relationship the District has with residents, documented in Section 6 below, continues with the announcement from Phil Harding that McCrank and Westvale
residents may now also be targeted for septic inspections based on a meaningless, ("unfortunately the data is not statisically sound") report. This is unlike all other areas where the District was forced to cancel sewers or other areas in Muskoka with septic systems of a similar age. See video of announcement here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1UGgtakZWRmFnWHM/view?usp=sharing
The sewer project was not canceled "for residents comfort" as Phil said. The District was FORCED to cancel because of our petition as per Provincial law.
Mar. 02, 2016 Bracebridge will move forward with road replacement http://www.mymuskokanow.com/33265/bracebridge-will-move-forward-with-road-replacement/
Feb. 29, 2016 Town of Bracebridge Budget Meeting where roads were discussed at 3:45:20 to 4:17:00 http://download.isiglobal.ca/bracebridge/archive_2016-02-29.mp4.html
Feb. 23, 2016 CogecoTV update https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB9-zJmVhXg Jan. 12, 2016 story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPMOnjZytrE
Feb. 17, 2016 Engineering and Public Works Committee votes to CANCEL sewer project rather than just defer. Still need entire Council to vote to cancel Mar. 21, 2016
Resolution to cancel is here on page 13. https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/27458?preview=27494
Once again Lori-Lynn Giaschi-Pacini (Deputy Chair) was very helpful. She will also be helping to get Bracebridge Council to do the roads ASAP.
Bracebridge Council meeting video link http://download.isiglobal.ca/bracebridge/archive_2016-01-20.mp4.html
Don Smith's comments about the Jan 12 meeting start at 51:30. Discussion about planned road work follows. Bracebridge is keen to do the roads.
Complete video of the Feb. 17, 2016 Engineering and Public Works Meeting can be found here:
File 1 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1S2I3WHVwdTNncm8/view?usp=sharing
File 2 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1aXhSUERrbzFONXM/view?usp=sharing
File 3 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1VVJGWXJrTGdQNFE/view?usp=sharing
Feb. 16, 2016 Lori-Lynn Giaschi-Pacini (Deputy Chair) speech regarding sewers at the District Council meeting. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1c1RlbEphQ01aa1U/view?usp=sharing
Jan. 28, 2016 "..there is only one right thing for the councillors involved to do. Resign immediately." See story below media Section 10.
page 4 http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk//launch.aspx?pbid=443028cf-2f6b-47eb-8dd9-20380d81b998
Jan. 21, 2016 New Town of Bracebridge excuse for not rebuilding the roads. See Section 9. below.
Jan. 20, 2016 Complete video of the Engineering and Public Works Meeting can be found here:
File 1 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1SHpObFpFRW8wd0E/view?usp=sharing including Heather Kaye's presentation
At 1:15 "We have lost confidence and trust in our District councillors."
Fred Jahn at 23:00 "There is no evidence of an adverse impact" in regards to the current septic systems and the environment.
See Section 2. below audio of Dec. 17 meeting at 37:00 "one is for environmental or health reasons which wasn't the case here"
File 2 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1RjN5WDQ4elNlVGs/view?usp=sharing
At 3:30 Q: "... is there other neighbourhoods as well where it has been rejected by the residents and it didn't proceed?"
Fred Jahn A:"... The Huntsville one is the only one I was personally involved in, we didn't really go back and look at history.."
Odd comment when Curling and Golf Course roads were discussed at the Dec. 17 meeting See Section 2 below At 48:00. List of cancelled projects is Section 3.
At 5:10 Discussion that the local improvement would have been stopped for two years by petition if it had been initiated legally.
John Klinck (District Chair) at 8:20 "I'd like to make it very clear that I would vote against proceeding with the local improvement".
Lori-Lynn Giaschi-Pacini (Deputy Chair) at 11:00 "We're not in the business to get people so they can't afford their homes and have to sell."
At 13:00 "If zero is the number we get connected... I don't think that's an option"
At 18:50 "If we allowed neighbourhoods to make these decisions we're never going to put in another sewer line"
"If we allowed?" That statement shows a RECKLESS DISREGARD for the rights of residents of Muskoka and Provincial Law. Mens Rea.
At 24:30 In regards to septic testing. "It's a summer student that we get and they do lakefront only". "It's a visual and a sniff test."
If the District of Muskoka was really interested in protecting the environment they would do a lot more than that for the 100,000 seasonal residents that are right beside the lakes. See Section 5.
File 3 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1ZXdNNTVKaFA3dkk/view?usp=sharing
At 3:00 The District did NOT stop the project for two years even when a councillor questioned the legality of continuing in spite of receiving the poll rejecting the project. That shows a RECKLESS DISREGARD of the law. Mens Rea.
At 4:50 Decision deferred again.
At 5:05 "The letter of the law was not followed. What are the consequences of that?" Followed by District lawyer Jamie Chow's response on a different topic.
It was brought up that sewers would be significantly better for the environment in the District of Muskoka but that argument is entirely without merit as described in Section 5.
It also came up about testing of the current septic systems. That's fine, however the testing would have to be done by an independent contractor hired by the homeowner and paid for by the District.
This is due to the lack of credibility the District has in the matter especially since the local improvement was started illegally.
Testing results may find there is a lot of life left in some of the septic systems. Life is not determined just by age but number of residents on the system, the quality of overburden (soil type and thickness), frequency of pump outs etc. Septic systems can last as long as 50 years. See section 5.
As John Klinck said during the meeting the overburden in the subject area suits the installation of sewers but it also suits the efficient operation of septic systems. See file 2 above at 6:00.
It was also repeated that somehow property values would go up when connected to sewers but that is obviously not true when such property is encumbered with very high yearly fees and the potential for sewer backup.
As of Jan. 12, 2016 DISTRICT OF MUSKOKA ADMITS TO ILLEGALLY ATTEMPTING TO FORCE SEWERS ON RESIDENTS
The District of Muskoka believes they are above the law. So far they are. I'm not sure the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and others would agree.
It's too bad the District doesn't have some sort of legal department that could take a few minutes and check the legality of District policies, letters to residents demanding large amounts of money and other documents. Oh wait, apparently they do. I guess they are too busy threatening the little brewery in Baysville. See Section 6 below. You might also think basic ethics would guide staff anyway but you would be wrong.
WE WON. TOTAL, COMPLETE ANNIHILATION. "THIS LOCAL IMPROVEMENT NO LONGER EXISTS"
Listen to the CogecoTV story at 1:30 here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPMOnjZytrE
"We didn't technically meet all the requirements that we were supposed to follow to notify the public on how this process works".
"Technically?" First, that is a huge understatement and second why didn't you follow the requirements?
"...we fell short on notifying you in terms of your right to petition against this process..."
Not informing us that we had the right to fight the proposal with a petition and helping us with the petition is a MAJOR omission. They did the total opposite.
The words on the Dec. 4 letter are very clear. "Your property WILL BE receiving sewers". We clearly had no say in the matter.
Listen to 1:45 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPMOnjZytrE
"I apologize for the error, it means that officially from a LEGAL standpoint there is not a local improvement process initiated from this point on". This means the local improvement no longer exists.
It was not an "error". It was planned illegal action as you can see from the Feb. 18 minutes and illegal policy AD:22. Mens Rea.
It was discussed back on Feb. 18 that sewer projects could proceed without seeking resident support.
See PW-4-2015 https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/25490?preview=25493 page 2
At 2:30 Fred Jahn said in regards to doing the sewers at the same time as road reconstruction. "The timing of it will save the public $760,000 which is a lot of money of course".
In fact the project will cost the 67 properties involved approx. (67x$19,000) = $1.273 MILLION in the first year plus (67x$1500) = $100,500 every year after that. Also a lot of money of course.
At 2:07 Fred Jahn said "we received a petition that said 65% of the population was not in favour of this proposal." Below we said 85% of residents contacted are opposed. Both numbers are correct.
The problem is petitions are black and white. If you do not sign the petition opposing the sewers you are automatically assumed to be for the sewers.
You could miss signing the petition for any reason. Away, sick, medical appt etc. It doesn't matter. If you do not sign the petition opposing the sewers you are automatically assumed to be for the sewers.
It's very important if a new petition is necessary that everyone opposed signs it. If that means mailing them to wherever you are and back then that's what has to be done.
We were only allowed time to contact 75% of the residents. Of those 85% signed the petition. So 85% of the 75% contacted is about 65% which is the official legal result of the petition.
In reality, of the 25% we didn't contact it is very likely that 85% of those would have signed as well but since we don't have their signatures people not contacted are counted as for the sewers.
Also of the 15% contacted that didn't sign most are undecided. That also counts as for the sewers.
The current local improvement doesn't exist since it was done illegally. A new local improvement for the same project could be initiated (possibly legally this time) in the future but the Einstein quote comes to mind again.
The four options discussed are only in the future if the District tries once again. Originally these options were mostly what the meeting was supposed to be about.
It is likely on Tuesday Jan 12 the new slide was added describing the cancellation of the current local improvement for multiple legal reasons. See section 7. below.
It turns out the District can't force sewers on anyone as they have tried to do. In fact, as Fred Jahn said, the District has to help us petition against them. If there is a next time a petition will be 95%+ opposed as we will be ready.
Cogeco TV coverage of the Jan 12 meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPMOnjZytrE
Audio of the entire meeting is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1UGk2OVl1MkNRX2M/view?usp=sharing
Quotes from audio:
24:15 "The operation of septic systems is about half the cost of sewer systems." See actual cost comparison in 4. below.
34:40 Q: "Can you just reiterate that the whole project is stopped right now that was started on Dec. 4..." A: "... I can confirm once again nothing is moving forward at this point in time..."
36:10 Q: "...We need a reason why this wasn't handled correctly? Why?" A: "...I'm not here to make excuses as to why we mishandled it..."
Video of the first part of Fred Jahn's presentation. You may have to download this video to get it to play smoothly.
At 1:05 "The Provincial Regulations" "586 which is the official policy that has to be followed for local improvement": https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1SnV5T2J0d1AtOFU/view?usp=sharing
__________________________________________________________________________________________
The District of Muskoka is trying to force the installation of sanitary sewers in the McCrank Drive, Daniel Drive, Catharine Crescent and Westvale Drive areas in spite of 85% of residents contacted that are opposed.
NOTE VENUE CHANGE as of Jan 7, 2016
The next public meeting is 7:00 p.m. Jan. 12, 2016 at the Bracebridge Sportsplex 110 Clearbrook Trail
The only choice the District has is to CANCEL the sewer project completely and get out of the way so the Town can repair the roads as planned.
The website is divided into the following sections. Check back later for updates.
1. Petition Results
2. Discussion at Engineering and Public Works Committee Meeting after presentations
3. Sewer Projects have been canceled elsewhere in Muskoka District with negative petitions
4. Actual Cost of New Sewers $19K+ in the first year plus $1500+ yearly forever
5. Sewers are clearly NOT better for the environment than Septic Systems
Although some septic systems in the affected areas are over 20 years old, why would anyone (forced or willingly) pay $19K+ in the first year plus huge ongoing extra charges to hook up to a much older, inferior, leaky system?
6. We are also objecting to the bullying tactics used by the District to force sewers on residents
7. Provincial Regulation stating: Local improvement not to proceed for two years if negative petition received
8. We are putting the following notices of this website up on mailboxes in the affected and future targeted areas.
9. We are being held hostage for proper roads unless we submit to the District's demands of paying massive costs for a new sewer pipe.
10. Media Coverage so far
11. Images
12. You too can create a website. It's as easy as creating an email
1. Petition Results
On Dec. 17, 2015 a petition was presented to the District of Muskoka showing 85% of the residents are opposed to new sewer pipes in the McCrank Drive, Daniel Drive, Catharine Crescent and Westvale Drive areas.
Of the remaining 15% most are undecided. We were able to contact 75% of the residents in the very short time allowed between the Dec. 6 letter and Dec. 17 meeting.
All of the properties are already on town water, just not sewers. All of the lots are fairly large so installing a new or upgraded septic system is not a problem.
Following the recording of the petition 2 delegates from the area presented detailed arguments against the proposed sewer pipes at the Engineering and Public Works Committee meeting.
Their presentations can be found here: https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/27193 under Speaking Notes Heather Kaye and Speaking Notes Kevin Cardwell.
The sewer pipes would be new but the system on the other end of the pipe is actually quite old (originally in the 1970s then upgraded).
Despite multi-million dollar upgrades the Bracebridge system sprung a leak (142,000 litres) as recently as a year ago.
http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/5321920-sewage-lagoon-springs-a-leak/
To be fair though, leaks and spills from sewer systems are fairly common, unfortunately, sometimes for reasons as simple as melting snow, rain and power failures. See Section 5.
Bracebridge Sewage Lagoon Upgrades:
http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/4333510-from-the-sewers-to-the-lakes-where-does-your-water-go-/ Just don't drink it.
2. Discussion at Engineering and Public Works Committee Meeting after presentations
There is an audio recording of the entire meeting available from the District. If you take a USB stick with at least 200 Mb available they can make a copy of the MP3 file for you.
The file name is: PW-16-2015 - December 17, 2015 - Sewer Extension.mp3 You may find some of the councillors comments after the presentations interesting.
Audio of the meeting is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1R1hWTGdYeV9Xcmc/view?usp=sharing
It starts at 13:40 after the bike path presentation and goes to 1:00:00 hour. We were looking for a transcript to get the following councillor quotes exactly correct but were offered the audio recording instead.
The one talking really quietly is Fred Jahn, the district commissioner of engineering and public works. He was the only one not questioning the project and how it was handled.
At 37:00 Fred Jahn "There are two triggers that District Council can initiate a local improvement without petitioning the area residents, one is for environmental or health reasons which wasn't the case here..."
At 48:00 Q: " The delegation seems to indicate there was petitions from those roads (Golf Course and Curling) that have cancelled. Is that correct or not?"
A: "... I know the area residents were petitioned and largely not in favour of it..." See Section 3. for list of cancelled projects.
At 52:00 on the audio recording John Klinck (District Chair) commented:
"I have to say and apologize, I was not aware of the significance of that particular section 4:14 that allowed us to proceed. I firmly put my support behind the concept of local improvement based on the petition concept and I think it's entirely appropriate for neighbourhoods to have a significant role in whether or not these major municipal projects take place, notwithstanding I can also understand that in certain circumstances administrators should have the ability to react quickly in case of emergency or whatnot. So I think at some point regardless of the outcome on this particular issue I would like us to revisit that section 4:14 and tidy that up just a little bit. I'm not feeling very comfortable with it and I, quite frankly, sympathize with the neighbourhood here."
Odd comment when the report addressed to the chair and committee PW-16-2015-11 on page 2 spells out the District's plan to proceed with this local improvement without polling residents.
Following the discussion the councillors voted unanimously to defer voting to proceed with the sewers until after a public meeting at 7:00 p.m. Jan. 12, 2016 at the Bracebridge Sportsplex 110 Clearbrook Trail
A letter is to be sent out to residents informing them of the meeting. Please plan to attend that meeting to show your opposition.
As Kevin Cardwell presented to the District Dec. 17, the only choice the District has is to CANCEL the sewer project completely and get out of the way so the Town can repair the roads as planned.
During the discussion it was stated that Curling Road and Golf Course Roads are to get sewers one year later.
Logically South Muskoka Drive (again), Meadow Heights and the west part of McCrank sub-division would be targeted next. Brian Road, Kevin Crescent, Daleman Dr., Rockwell Ave. etc.
3. Sewer Projects have been cancelled elsewhere in Muskoka District with negative petitions
Residents have forced the District of Muskoka to cancel sewer projects many times recently with a poll or petition.
This time on Feb. 18, 2015 they chose to not take a poll or inform residents of their right to petition against them as required by Provincial Law. That is the SERIOUS AND MARKED DEPARTURE from normal practice. Mens Rea.
Residents were only given a few days to respond from the Dec. 4, 2015 letter. See Section 6. below.
South Muskoka Drive 2005 cancelled https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/search search for PW-7-2005-AGEND INDEX and see item 7
Curling and Golf Course Road 2008 cancelled https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/5285?preview=5290 see PW-8-2008-11
Hidden Valley Huntsville 2014 cancelled http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/4725263-district-committee-scraps-hidden-valley-sewer-project/
Similar to the successful Hidden Valley sewer fight last year where sewers were stopped:
Our initial Dec. 17 meeting was like this one in Huntsville. "Financially Devastating": http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/4429839-opposition-mounts-against-hidden-valley-sewer-project/
except we have 85% opposed and there were two delegates and a lot of people from the neighbourhoods supporting us.
Here is how the Jan 12 2016 meeting is likely to go: http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/4544036-frustrations-mount-at-hidden-valley-sewer-meeting/
which was followed by: http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/4725263-district-committee-scraps-hidden-valley-sewer-project/
Westvale and McCrank cancelled 2016 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cB9-zJmVhXg
Huntsville 2018
Even at $180K to hook up there is no exclusion. Just a 10 year extension. The property isn't worth much with a future $180K payment encumberance. How ridiculous is that?
It appears some have forgotten the definition of insanity as defined by Albert Einstein.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
4. Actual Cost of New Sewers $19K+ in the first year plus $1500+ yearly forever
On Dec. 6, 2015 residents received a registered letter in the above areas listing $12,251.36 for gravity sewers and $8,130.56 for low pressure sewers requiring the addition of a pump.
These are only a fraction of the total costs residents are expected to pay. Total one time and ongoing costs are as follows from the Speaking Notes presented to the District:
McCrank Gravity Sewers
the District is expecting a property owner to pay:
• $12,251.36 for gravity sanitary sewer
• $5000.00 for our property to be connected to the sewer ( excavating,
plumbing, pumping, permit, back filling costs)
• $612.00 increase on our tax bills (for an assessed $300,000.00 home)
• $1080.00 (currently it is $360.00) annual charge for water/sewer
• $250.00 annual charge for homeowner insurance
• Making a grand total of $19,193.36 in a single year (if the least expensive
option 1 is chosen and more per year over 10 years if option B is chosen) vs.
$360.00 (our current water bill) we now pay.
Westvale Low Pressure Sewers
Over 10 years this system will cost my property
$8130 for low pressure system
$8160 in additional property taxes over 10 years
$5400 in additional sewage charges over 10 years
$6000 to install pump, storage tank, piping and trenching
$1000 pump out old tank and fill with sand
This will cost me $28,690 over the next 10 years OVER what I pay today
Total cost in the first year could be as high as $40,000 if your current septic system is in the back yard so the pipe has to go around the house to the road and/or there are rocks, trees, decks etc in the way.
These costs are FAR higher than maintaining and eventually replacing existing septic systems when it's required.
Even if the hook up to sewers was FREE it makes sense to stay on septic as just the yearly sewer additional charges are equivalent to a brand new complete septic system every 10-15 years or so. For those who already have a septic system just the additional yearly charges for sewer is equivalent to a new septic bed every 6 years or so.
15 out of 67 or 22% of the properties in the above areas have already replaced/upgraded septic systems recently after checking that the District had no plans for sewers.
For those with a current septic system just replacing the septic bed is only about $8000 and you are good for at least another 25 years.
So the comparison is really $8000 for septic compared to $19,000 plus $1500/year for sewer.
At this point the cost of sewers is 2.3X more expensive initially in the first year ($19,000/$8100) and 15X more expensive every year after that ($1500/$100 per year or $400 every 4 years for septic pump out).
Even accounting for the minimum 25 year life of a septic bed upgrade ($8000/25 years = $320/year plus $100 per year pump out) sewers would still be 3.6X more expensive ($1500/$420 yearly cost) even if the hook up was entirely FREE.
Replacement of existing septic systems will continue over the next few years as required and is a superior sewage treatment process detailed in the next section.
5. Sewers are clearly NOT better for the environment than Septic Systems
Sewers in Canada are a joke. A dirty joke.
Municipal sewage spills don't have to be reported to Environment Canada (only 159 of 269 municipalities do) and amounts reported can be bogus.
1 Trillion litres of sewage spilled in Canada in the last 5 years.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/08/13/canada-sewage-leaks_a_23501142/?utm_hp_ref=ca-homepage
According to Wikipedia the District of Muskoka is 2500 sq. mi, 1600 lakes, 60,000 permanent residents and 100,000 seasonal residents. A lot of "seasonal" properties are now used year round.
Of the 160,000 residents only 10,036 properties are on sewers. If we assume an average of 3 people per property then only 30,000 of 160,000 total residents or 19% are on sewers.
That leaves 81% of the residents on septic systems or the vast majority. Sewers will NEVER be installed for most of those residents due to the large distances involved and the terrain in Muskoka etc.
Whether or not a few hundred or a few thousand additional residents are on sewers will make no significant difference.
In spite of the Province's preference for sewers in urban areas the vast majority of Muskoka residents are now, and always will be, on septic systems.
Unlike the District we don't believe the Province prefers people sell their house when they can't afford massive sewer charges.
Of the 100,000 seasonal residents most would be lakefront or close to lakefront so it's far more likely any sewage issue from these properties would impact the lakes far greater than any town property 3 miles away.
Billions of litres of raw sewage, untreated waste water pouring into Canadian waterways
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/sewage-pollution-wastewater-cities-1.3889072
Sewers are the largest single source of pollution in Canada.
Septics cannot cause massive releases of raw sewage into waterways as has happened recently in Montreal (intentionally).
Old sewer systems can be a problem as well as old septic systems.
8 billion litres of raw sewage was released into the St. Lawrence River.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/11/11/montreal-sewage-dump-into-st-lawrence-begins.html
Huntsville Sewage Spill 500,000 litres Aug. 10, 2016 http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/6803897-broken-pipe-leads-to-sewage-spill-in-huntsville/
Huntsville Sewage Spill 88,000 litres Mar. 31, 2016 http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/6516647-disinfected-poop-spills-from-sewage-plants-as-flood-hits-huntsville/
Bracebridge Sewage Spill 142,000 litres Dec. 15, 2014 http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/5321920-sewage-lagoon-springs-a-leak/
- click on PW-2-2015-9 Sewage Spill Event Bracebridge Septage Lagoon Facility
https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/25386?preview=25398
Although some septic systems in the affected areas are over 20 years old, why would anyone (forced or willingly) pay $19K+ in the first year plus huge ongoing extra charges to hook up to a much older, inferior, leaky system?
Some sewer systems release huge amounts of raw sewage into waterways regularly every time it rains a lot. http://www.blogto.com/city/2015/08/city_of_toronto_to_send_alerts_when_sewage_spills_in_lake/
http://www.betterfarming.com/archive/cov-no6.htm
https://www.ecojustice.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Flushing-Out-the-Truth-2009.pdf
On page 6 of previous link: "There is no information on CSOs and sewage plant bypasses incidents publicly reported in Ontario by the provincial government, so the full extent of the problem remains unknown."
Sewers are the largest single source of pollution in Canada and spills are not always publicly reported? Could it be because the problem is widespread and worse than anyone could imagine?
Even something as simple/common as a power failure sometimes can cause a massive sewage spill. http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/intakes-closed-after-860-000-litres-of-sewage-spill-into-grand-river-1.1487375
Septic systems are immune to massive problems caused just by rain and power failures, clearly a superior advantage.
“Today we have about 400 facilities dumping at least 1.5 trillion litres of raw sewage directly into our waterways every year causing impacts to everything from our beaches along waterways to commercial fisheries including shellfish.
There was a massive sewage backup in 2004 and a smaller one in 2012 in Peterborough. Homeowners without sewer insurance were out of luck. Those on septic were immune to sewer backups.
"Some homes with backflow valves still had sewage backup in their basements following that storm, Scott said."It's not a guarantee," he said"
A backflow valve is a valve between your house and the sewer that's supposed to prevent sewage from flowing back into your basement when the sewers back up. Backflow valves are quite expensive and they don't always work.
Here is another link:
http://www.septicsystem.com/septic-vs-sewer.html
"Septic drain-fields that are well maintained and properly sized can last as long as 50 years, but on average it could be about 20 years." Quite a range in expected life.
Of course if you replace parts of your system every 30 years or so your septic system will last INDEFINITELY. Everyone who cannot possibly be hooked up to sewers knows that. The District?, not so much.
Septics are actually greener as they need no chemicals or electricity for pumping.
Read the paragraph "Septic: The Green Choice?" and also quote:
"a 1997 report by the EPA says that adequately managed decentralized wastewater treatment systems (e.g. septic systems) are a cost-effective, long-term option for meeting public health and water quality goals, particularly in less densely populated areas."
http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-06/documents/septic_rtc_all.pdf see page 3
Here is another link:
http://www.bayjournal.com/article/think_septics_are_always_bad_then_you_dont_know_sewage
The letter from the District says "property would benefit from the installation of sanitary sewer services".
Actually sewers are a major potential liability. So much so that extra house insurance must be purchased to cover sewage backup into your basement. We are not sure why sewers are described as a Local "Improvement".
Sewers are only appropriate as a poor second choice where high population density precludes the use of septic systems.
The purpose of the proposed sewers in the above neighbourhoods is entirely as stated in PW-16-2015-11 found here:https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/27193?preview=27206 under page 3 Strategic Priorities "2.1 ... reducing the capital debt associated with sewer and water capital projects" and "2.2 Increase sewer and water revenue by enforcing the mandatory connection by-law".
It is not for environmental reasons or to attempt to provide a cost competitive service to residents.
6. We are also objecting to the bullying tactics used by the District to force sewers on residents
Feb 18, 2015 PW-4-2015-1 Coordination of Sanitary Sewer Local Improvements with Planned Road Reconstruction https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/25385
note Curling Road and Golf Course Road are included in this document. They are still targeted, just delayed one year.
Dec 4, 2015 Registered Letter to Residents dictating new sewer pipes to be constructed
Dec 6, 2015 Registered Letter delivered. Time and location of Engineering meeting omitted. Thurs Dec. 17 at 1:00 is tough for many people to attend.
Dec 10, 2015 Deadline to be a delegate at the next Engineering and Public Works Committee meeting
Dec 17, 2015 Engineering and Public Works Committee meeting where two delegates gave presentations described in item 1. and petition submitted to the District.
Local improvement was not stopped immediately when petition proven sufficient as required by Provincial Law. Mens Rea.
One delegate at the meeting asked a lot of detailed questions about the project. The District has never answered ANY of them. See link to presentations under Section 1.
Note the large time gap between the Feb 18 meeting proposing the sewer extension and the Dec. 4 letters sent out informing residents. Mens Rea.
Note we only had 4 days to produce 2 delegates opposing the proposal. Mens Rea.
Note only 11 days between letter receipt and the Engineering meeting to vote to proceed. This was the total time allowed to produce the petition opposing the proposed sewers. Mens Rea.
Also be aware that the Dec. 17 Engineering meeting was not just about the proposed sewers but also about a lot of other items on the agenda.
If 3 other delegates had decided to present about any of the other items (bike paths etc.) on the agenda we would not have been allowed to present opposition AT ALL.
Not allowing reasonable and sufficient time for debate and opposition to a proposal is undemocratic and ENTIRELY UNACCEPTABLE. Mens Rea.
The District is hiding behind their Policy AD:22 which illegally grants themselves unlimited power to force Local "Improvements" in spite of 85% of residents opposing it.
See Policy here:https://muskoka.civicweb.net/document/5380/AD22%20Local%20Improvements.pdf?handle=9BEAECF5B0FE45C5A390FCBADEBC5EEF
Clause 4.10 iii) states:
The notice shall contain a form that the property owner may use to indicate
support for, or objection to, the project, along with a stamped return addressed
envelope. The notice shall describe Muskoka’s policy of
not proceeding with local improvement projects unless, within thirty
(30) days following the mailing of the notice, a majority of the written
submissions received from the affected property owners indicates
support for the project...
This form was not included with the letter.
Section 4.12 says "Nothing (!!! including Provincial Regulations it seems) shall fetter the discretion of District council to choose to proceed or not to proceed with a local improvement project." Mens Rea.
This is the "We can do whatever we want" section that they seem to use a lot.
It appears 4.12, 4.13, 4.14 were added later as they conflict with and override 4.10 and also conflict with Provincial regs. Mens Rea.
This is the Policy John Klinck (District Chair) is questioning. http://www.mymuskokanow.com/30041/muskoka-district-chair-questions-use-of-internal-policy-on-sewage-development/
That Policy needs to change.
Listen to the the audio recording of John Klinck in the link above talking about 4:11 and 4:12. We believe he is implying 4:11 and 4:12 (forcing local improvement) are only to be used in an emergency situation. Clearly that is not the case here.
In PW-4-2015-1 https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/25385 page 2 note the threatening language describing how a negative poll may not prevent sewers in the Curling Road and Golf Course Road areas in 2007.
"Information that was provided to residents in this second circulation warned them that should there be a significant investment in the road at some point in the future, sanitary sewers would likely be installed without seeking their level of support for the project." Mens Rea.
PW-16-2015-11 found here:https://muskoka.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/27193?preview=27206 on page 2
"EXISTING POLICY
Sections 4.11 ii) and 4.14 of Administration Policy AD:22 – Local Improvements, provides for Council to approve proceeding with a Local Improvement, without polling the affected property owners, where Council deems it to be in the best interest of the District.
By-law 2007-24, Section B. Mandatory Connections, 2. (2) provides, in part, for the mandatory connection to municipal sanitary sewer services."
Forcing the installation of sewers has nothing to do with the environment or to attempt to provide a cost competitive service. It's entirely "in the best interest of the District" = More Cash.
Threats seem to be normal business practice at the District. See the end of this unrelated story: http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/6213016-ministry-inspection-flags-baysville-sewage-treatment-plant/
We are also going to be questioning Federal and Provincial MPs and MPPs regarding how the District is planning to spend Infrastructure Funds on a local "improvement" when the vast majority of residents are opposed.
Motivation for forcing residents to connect to sewers can be found in the Nov 18 budget meeting here. Note very high water and sewer charges compared to the rest of Ontario on page 9 of the pdf.
Residents of Muskoka are trying to save money by conserving water use. In spite of more connections water consumption is down. This reduces the District's water and sewer income. Instead of cutting their costs to match reduced consumption like any other business the District will try to force even more connections by any means possible (legal or otherwise). They will increase the fixed payment part of the bills and reduce the amount of the bill that depends on consumption. This will maintain or increase their income in spite of reduced consumption.
Check your water bill. The fixed portion has been increased 19% since Dec. to $46.52.
Audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2IIV9yZ6Nz1Rk9NY2NiU3JWM1U/view?usp=sharing
Powerpoint to go with audio: PW-14-2015 - Presentation CES-13-2015-3 - 2016 Draft Rate Supported Operatring and Capital Budgets.pdf
Listen to the audio starting at 47:00. Steven's plan to "get those people" with mandatory connections followed by Firman's suggestion that 70% of your water bill should be fixed to counter the revenue drop due to conservation. This is on top of the fixed water and sewer charges on your property tax bill.
Check your water bill. The fixed portion has been increased 19% since Dec. to $46.52. In Orillia that portion is only $13.46. http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/6493868-conservation-of-tap-water-only-penalizes-customers-smith/
Believe it or not there are 9 water and 9 sewer plants in Muskoka for only a small fraction of the 160,000 residents. One water plant was built for only 38 properties that are hooked up. It's no wonder Muskoka has the highest rates in Ontario and they are still losing money. They were in debt for $106 million because of those plants and they want to spend another $65 million in Huntsville. A lot of septic systems could have been bought with that kind of money. They expect the province and feds to pay 2/3. So far not a dime.
In spite of the District of Muskoka having a major cash cow (100,000 cottagers with high assessments/taxes and low cost of services) they still are able to overspend on water and sewer projects to the extent we have the highest water and sewer charges in Ontario. These already high charges are rapidly increasing as well. Check your latest bills.
7. Provincial Regulation stating: Local improvement not to proceed for two years if negative petition received
Local improvement not to proceed for two years if petition received
4. (1) If, within 30 days after the notice with respect to a work is given to the public under section 3, the municipality receives a sufficient petition, as determined under section 7, against undertaking the work as a local improvement, the municipality shall not undertake the work as a local improvement within two years after the petition is received by the municipality.
(2) Despite subsection (1), a petition of the owners does not prevent the local municipality from undertaking the work as a local improvement if the municipality has received,
(a) the approval of the Ontario Municipal Board under section 5 to undertake the work as a local improvement;
(b) a recommendation from the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care or the board of health for the municipality that the construction of the work is necessary or desirable in the public interest on sanitary grounds; or
(c) a sufficient petition, as determined under section 7, in favour of undertaking the work as a local improvement.
(3) A notice to an owner shall be deemed to be sufficiently served if it is served personally, is sent by mail to the owner’s place of business or residence as set out in the last returned assessment roll of the municipality, as most recently revised, or is left at or sent by mail to the owner’s actual place of business or residence, if it is known.
Jan 1, 2016 An email to Norm Miller's office was sent asking for clarification on the above as it seemed the District was in clear violation since Dec. 17.
Jan 7, 2016 Norm's office investigated and forwarded this email to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing with the question "They are wondering if the Municipality has the right to proceed with infrastructure and installation when 85% of residents oppose?"
Jan 11, 2016 4:18 p.m. A response from David Foster from Municipal Affairs and Housing was received. In large, bold, starred, underlined print it says * Local improvement not to proceed for two years if petition received
Jan 11, 2016 4:31 p.m. The above email from David Foster was forwarded to Fred Jahn at the District (among others) with the question "is the District planning to comply with the Provincial Reg?"
Jan 12, 2016 We believe the above email prompted a legal review at the District which also found many other legal issues with this local improvement process which required immediate annihilation. Legal definition 3. to annul; make void; http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/annihilate
8. We are putting the following notices of this website up on mailboxes in the affected and future targeted areas.
OPPOSE BRACEBRIDGE SEWERS
for the website link google the above and
click on the mymuskokanow.com story
https://sites.google.com/site/opposebracebridgesewers/
Next Public Meeting Jan. 12, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.
Bracebridge Sportsplex 110 Clearbrook Trail
If we missed your mailbox as of tomorrow evening Dec. 24 please put up a notice. It fills a landscape page in a plastic sheet protector.
Please forward the link of this website on social media, facebook, twitter, email etc.
9. We are being held hostage for proper roads unless we submit to the District's demands of paying massive costs for a new sewer pipe.
Everyone agrees major road repair is long overdue in our area. The excuse for the delay has always been "We might put in sewers some day."
There was never a survey to gauge our support for sewers (as there is now) so there is really no excuse for the sorry state of the roads.
Apparently if you are on a septic system you don't qualify for proper roads.
New Town of Bracebridge excuse for not rebuilding the roads. http://www.mymuskokanow.com/31152/bracebridge-council-concerned-paving-project-could-be-for-nothing/
The District admitted to starting the local "improvement" illegally. We called them on it so now the whole sorry process could start again delaying the road repair even longer.
10. Media Coverage so far
"Backlash" and frustration are understatements.
People generally don't respond well to threats and bullying.
Dec 17 http://www.mymuskokanow.com/29933/mccrank-drive-residents-turn-on-proposed-sewage-development/
Dec 21 http://www.mymuskokanow.com/30024/30024/
Jan 07 http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?pbid=443028cf-2f6b-47eb-8dd9-20380d81b998
Jan 08 http://myinforms.com/en-ca/a/21629524-bracebridge-residents-opposed-districts-sewer-plans/
Jan 08 http://www.topix.com/wire/ca/ontario
Jan 08 http://www.newsjs.com/us/mary-lake-group-proposes-projects/
Jan 13 Cogeco TV coverage of the Jan 12 meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPMOnjZytrE
Jan 15 login to facebook first to see comments https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1667080400175965&id=1609883759228963
Jan 28 "..there is only one right thing for the councillors involved to do. Resign immediately." See story below or page 4 http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk//launch.aspx?pbid=443028cf-2f6b-47eb-8dd9-20380d81b998
Feb 17 http://www.mymuskokanow.com/32417/proposed-sewage-project-could-be-postponed-to-next-year/
Feb 18 http://www.mymuskokanow.com/32485/district-committee-scraps-proposed-sewer-project-in-bracebridge/
Feb 18 https://m.facebook.com/Bracebridge-is-YOUR-Town-172974046068285/
Feb 18 https://m.facebook.com/HuntsvilleForester
Feb 18 https://mobile.twitter.com/BracebridgeExam/status/700407423572578304
Feb 23 CogecoTV update https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB9-zJmVhXg
Mar 02 http://www.mymuskokanow.com/33265/bracebridge-will-move-forward-with-road-replacement/
Mar 17 http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/6395076-bracebridge-moving-ahead-with-subdivision-roadwork/
Additional District of Muskoka Attacks
Perhaps it's the District that needs to be educated about the 2001 Act. Just as residents had to educate them about Ont. Reg. 586/06 earlier this year.
Dec 1 http://www.mymuskokanow.com/45252/150-residents-overcharged-water-bills-around-20-years/
Mar 30, 2017 http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/7223221-forced-connections-may-put-people-out-of-homes-muskoka-councillor/
District of Muskoka Councillors YouTube version: https://youtu.be/fMcagdEHicY
District of Muskoka WhatsUp Jan 6, 2016
11. Images
District of Muskoka Grinch Story
District of Muskoka Cartoon
District of Muskoka Cartoon YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_USjjK0h-Y
District of Muskoka Office
District of Muskoka Grinch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvWGeWAcEGc&feature=youtu.be
District of Muskoka
click on image above Future Sewer Expansion Plans
Muskoka
Muskoka
Muskoka Sewers
12. You too can create a website. It's as easy as creating an email
A website is a very useful, worldwide, one-way communication tool. All the above information regarding a particular issue can be found in one spot.
Many people can contribute to the web site by emailing information that is copied and pasted to the web site.
It's much better if, after your statement, there is a link corroborating your statement. In this case that was very easy.
It also creates a permanent record of what took place for those with short memories. Google "The District of Muskoka" and click on Images or Videos to see a few of the permanent records.
A website is also useful for all those investigating (including the OPP), what occurred, when it occurred, who was involved etc. complete with District document links.
Include a few images and cartoons if you can. They can make your points in a few seconds for interested media and others. They will also show up in google searches and link back to your site.
If you would like to create a free website for your issue with the District or anyone else here are some instructions on how this one was created.
1. First watch this youtube video: http://youtu.be/vgpbGjXRObE
2. Create a new gmail address at gmail.com. Don't use an existing one. Use a name related to your issue. The web site creation tool is accessed from the gmail. Login to gmail.
3. Click on the grid of squares in the upper right. Then "More" on the bottom then "Even More" on the bottom again until you get a full page of options.
4. Scroll down to Sites and click on the CREATE button. Follow the instructions.
5. Pick a name that is easy to remember. Google will check if it exists already. The actual name will have "https://sites.google.com/site/" in front of it.
6. It will take a few days after the web site is created before it will show up just doing a google search for the name.
7. To go into edit mode either click on the pencil icon at the top or just press "e". When done make sure you hit SAVE upper right to update the site.
8. Unlike an email you can always update the site. Clicking Save means the next person will see the updated site.
9. To make a website address clickable highlight the address then press the chain symbol (link symbol) to make the text blue and clickable.
10. The hit counter is called a Gadget and is added by clicking Insert, More Gadgets, Public then search for Visitor Counter. Take your pick.
11. To add images click on Insert then Image.
12. Use google Drive to store large files (videos etc). It is accessed from the gmail by clicking on the grid of squares then Drive.
13. To back up the website highlight everything and copy and paste into an email to yourself.
14. Anything on this page can be copied and pasted to your website.
google-site-verification: google77a5423617f50843.html
