Take the money

If not compassion or understanding, perhaps creativity. It has been a rough few weeks in paradise. Glorious summer vacation weather combined with desperate urban folks seeking relief from COVID-19- imposed incarceration has propelled a great throng to our shores. Too many. More than we can manage.

So we close the beaches. We close Little Bluff Conservation Area. Neither of these measures fixes the problem. Instead, it merely pushes it out onto municipal roads and streets. In response, council hikes fines to a punitive $300. It may serve to alleviate the strain in the most dangerous places, but it isn’t a solution. It just moves it around.

Council knows this. They acknowledge it is a stop-gap measure—that more comprehensive measures/solutions/remedies will be produced in the offseason. Though I’m sure most believe their words, inevitably when the pressure fades in a few weeks, so will the urgency to find solutions. Other matters will rise to the fore, and soon enough summer will be here again. It seems to me that we need to consider better the nature of the challenge.

It turns out that folks who have invested their minivan with three kids, grandma, an overstuffed cooler, umbrella and inflatable swan, and who then drive two hours in search of a beach, aren’t likely to be defeated by a stick across the laneway or a closed sign. It doesn’t make them bad people. It makes them motivated.

An aside: It seems in this age of COVID, we are a bit too eager to attach moral shortcomings to those who cause us irritation or anxiety. In general, most folks, when guided or nudged, will follow the prescribed pathway—some more quickly than others—but most will choose self-interest first, then the interest of the herd.

Focusing so much energy and frustration upon the vanishingly small cohort that, through ignorance or sheer thoughtlessness, flout basic norms of decency and decorum seems unlikely to produce a better result and is ultimately an exasperating waste of time.

So what to do? I don’t have a ready prescription, as such. Indeed, it seems, each of the trouble zones will require different solutions. That said, I suggest that at least part of the problem is one of perspective.

It is trite to say that a challenge is merely an unrealized opportunity, but it seems an irresistibly apt cliché in this circumstance.

In 2005, the County funded a study that showed, among other things, that the average expenditure by an overnight guest in Ontario was $194. In Prince Edward County, it was $60. The blindingly obvious conclusion was that we weren’t taking the money these folks brought here to spend. It was as though visitors were walking down our streets with their wallets extended toward us—but we refused to take their money. Instead, we grumbled and wished they would go somewhere else.

Much has changed in those intervening years. There are a great many venues in which visitors are willing—and happy—to part with their cash, and folks willing to take it. A five-dollar cup of coffee is, it turns out, an agreeable price for the feeling folks get waking up in Prince Edward County. For this experience.

But while entrepreneurs have figured this out, managers of our public assets have been slower to absorb the message of the 15-yearold report. So I will make this simple—take the money.

Rather than close Little Bluff Conservation Area, charge folks to visit the place. Capitalize on its popularity. Take their money. Use it to maintain the place. Develop more parking. Enhance facilities.

Anticipating blowback, the Conservation Authority has said its primary directive is conservation. Fine, but closing seems an overly obtuse method of conservation. Commercializing these assets doesn’t mean they must become Disneyland. There are smart folks at the Authority and in the municipality—let them loose to find a workable balance between mayhem and closure. And take the money on the way through.

In December, the Conservation Authority will likely come to council seeking a hike in municipal funding. It sure would be easier to swallow if we knew these facilities were making prudent use of their revenue generating opportunities.

The same reasoning applies to Sandbanks, North Beach, Wellington Beach and elsewhere. Take the money. Improve facilities. Expand capacity, where you can. Use the popularity of these places to help pay for them.

And, I’m sorry to shatter the shibboleth of those who believe County assets should be free and accessible to “locals,” but there is no such entitlement to the natural beauty of this place. Locals didn’t create it, and we certainly don’t maintain it well.

Ultimately, putting a price on the use of these assets has limits. There are physical constraints, and we must always be mindful of how much these natural elements can endure. We will need other solutions. But rather than simply closing them and hoping the problem goes away, let us put more effort into exploring creative ways to share this beautiful place.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca