Around Our Shores – Susan Down
Times-Colonist Friday, March 19, 1993
On this midweek morning in early spring, the problem seems non-existent. From the big picture window in Jean and Jerry Collinson’s dining room, all we can see disturbing the calm of Shawnigan Lake is a single rowboat.
Jerry doesn’t venture out on the lake anymore. He sold his runabout and canoe years ago. “it’s too much of a hassle,” he said, admitting that he leaves what is supposedly a recreational paradise during the summer to cruise — on saltwater — aboard his 11-metre sailboat.
The problems — noise, pollution and safety concerns — are the byproducts of Shawnigan Lake’s own popularity. Water-skiers aren’t exactly villains, but put a fleet of them together with go-fast boaters and the effect can be chaotic. It’s a thorny issue that makes locals feel invaded by day-tripping, trailer-boating good-timers. As Jerry puts it, “The faster the boats the smaller the lake.”
Since Jerry first learned to swim in the lake over 50 years ago, that body of water has shrunk considerably. From his window, he has witnessed dozens of close calls: water-skiers swamping elderly canoeists, powerboaters roaring through narrow channels where children swim.
Long-term residents like the Collinson are beginning to realize they will have to agitate to preserve their threatened quality of life. As the secretary of the Shawnigan Property Owners’ Association, Jean is busy promoting the move to create a new municipality that can control its own watershed and harness its own development.
The RCMP patrols the lake for about 75 hours each summer looking for impaired drivers and speeders (over 65 km/h). The regional district also has bylaws requiring motors to be muffled with exhausts vented below the water.
“This issue surfaces at the end of every summer. People get crabby about the noise — even with the bylaw it’s still pretty bad. But I can’t see it, hear it or drink it so I guess I’m an independent observer,” said Area B director Janice Hayward, “I usually get complaints on the first sunny weekend. Last year it was in April.”
Would real estate prices decline if gas-powered boats were banned from the lake? “Property values would probably go up. (A ban) would make it much more liveable,” she said. “People in Shawnigan Beach Estates (more than a kilometre from the waterfront) tell me they can hear the noise.”
Less than an hour’s drive away from Victoria, Shawnigan Lake has been a popular resort since the first cottages were built at the turn of the century. As the British Colonist reported in 1886 “It is safe to predict that Shawnigan Lake will be one great resort of Victoria in the near future and on holidays it will be dotted with boats.”
That was then this is now. The area’s population increased 58 per cent between 1981 and 1991. If the Bamberton housing development goes ahead, Shawnigan would become the closest recreational lake to serve its needs as well.
Compromise, not total ban may be the answer. Half the price of gas outboards, electric motors are quiet and longer lasting. But try to waterski behind one and you’ll need a snorkel. The smallest gas outboard (a two-horsepower) is still faster than the most powerful electric motor (measured in thrust) you can buy. If the wind comes up, you many need some auxiliary rowing power to get home.
Of the 44 lakes and harbours in the Vancouver Island Resource Management Region, Shawnigan has the highest speed limit. Thirteen of these don’t allow power boats at all and 20 permit electric motors only. The only other water skiable area, Prospect Lake, has a very restricted skiing loop and limited public access down a steep logging road.
At St Mary Lake on Saltspring Island, a gas-powered boat ban was recently upheld by the court. “Business has increased since then,” said resort owner Harold Eilers, “It brings more city dwellers who want to get away from the noise. Now all we have to do is get rid of the float planes,”
Comments