Town Dock: Parry Sound's balancing act for a piece of infrastructure it doesn't own

Dave Thompson

Dave Thompson, Parry Sound's director of emergency and protective services, says repairs for the Town Dock won't be completed until the fall of 2023 when the federal government commit to cost-sharing. - Taylor Clark/Metroland

With Parry Sound’s Town Dock on track to see 40 cruise visits per season in the coming years, Mayor Jamie McGarvey urged the federal government to “pony up” to the priorities set out in Canada’s new Federal Tourism Growth Strategy and roll out funding for the extensive piece of infrastructure.

“(To) (grow) the tourism industry and (have) a good safe environment there, we need those improvements done,” said McGarvey.

Taking lessons from the pandemic, the growth strategy builds upon the previous 2019 strategy and is focused on bringing the country to the next level in international tourism. Among the strategy’s priorities is investment in Canada’s most-admired and best-known tourism assets.

Ownership of harbours falls to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans which currently owns 973 harbours, managed through its Small Craft Harbours program.

“Of these, 298 are deemed non-essential to the commercial fishing industry, as they are either recreational harbours and/or there (are) little commercial fishing activities taking place at these locations,” said the department’s media relations Axel Rioux.

The Town Dock is owned through this program and deemed non-essential to the commercial fishing industry.

To take some of the financial burden off the town, council passed a resolution on July 4 calling on the government to properly maintain and invest in the federal infrastructure.

While the federal government annually collects 20 per cent of the gross revenue payments, the resolution noted the town was operating at a loss to operate and maintain the dock at a minimum maintenance level.

“It's a difficult relationship with the federal government and just ensuring that everything's kept up to an acceptable standard for a piece of infrastructure that the town doesn't actually own,” said Dave Thompson, director of emergency and protective services.

The matter came to light after councillor Chris McDonald shared harbour master Bob Corrigan’s concerns with Thompson at a council meeting on June 20.

“Last year, we did notice some severe deterioration on a few of the bollards,” said Thompson.

One in particular began to badly pull away and an engineering firm recommended that it be looped out of operation immediately.

The Town Dock has undergone extensive surveys in 2011 and 2015 as well as a recent, more minor survey.

“(The dock is) an extensive piece of infrastructure and it's relatively old as well,” said Thompson. “And it's built in a variety of different manners.”

Significant capital repairs are allocated through cost-sharing. In any one year, the federal government has a maximum of $40,000 that would have to be matched by the municipality to be put forward.

“The engineering firm has assured me we will hit the $80,000 threshold for sure. We may have to scale back the repairs if the quotes come in significantly higher.”

But Thompson said the federal government was unwilling to commit to any cost-sharing for the bollard repairs until the fall of this year when the cruise season comes to a close.

Why doesn’t the town simply take over ownership of the dock like in the case with Big Sound Marina? Thompson said the answer was not that simple.

“The challenge with the Town Dock is that it's a much greater piece of infrastructure than what the Big Sound Marina was.”

Thompson said the town would need to take a long hard look at assuming such a significant piece of infrastructure of its size and being on the hook for the necessary repairs.

“There (are) no immediate plans for a divestiture. However, I mean, that could change at any given time, depending on the priorities of the town as well as the priorities of the federal government.”

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