Christian Gammon-Roy
Tribune
The end may finally be in sight for Lavigne residents wondering what was going on with a big trash heap on the shores of Lake Nipissing. The structure, made up of trailer parts, pontoons and several other pieces of scrap, was the subject of ire for Lavigne residents for over a year. Initially a moving “barge” of trash as some residents described it, it finally wound up on the shore, which meant the Ministry of Natural Resources was finally able to get involved. According to Georges Pharand, municipal councillor for Lavigne, charges were laid by the MNR, and Ben Lindsay of Lavigne was convicted of two offences and fined a total of $10,000. While the MNR were unable to provide details about the investigation at this time, they did confirm that cleanup will be underway soon, with November 1st as the tentative date they would have a contractor picked to clean up the debris.
Lindsay was fined $5,000 by the MNR for depositing material substances or things on public lands, and another $5,000 for depositing material, substances or things on water. Both offences fall under the Public Lands Act of 1990. He also received a court ordered ban from camping on Crown Land anywhere in Ontario for 5 years. Councillor Pharand relayed that information to his constituents via a Facebook post on October 10th, adding that the conviction happened September 26th. This was one of many Facebook updates from the councillor, who wants to humbly remind people that he wasn’t involved in the resolution of the problem. “I’ve posted updates on my Facebook page, and a lot of people think that I sorted it out. Well, I didn’t. All I did was kept in touch with the MNR to see what was going on with the process and was updating everyone. I don’t want to take credit,” he explains, adding that he was just keeping an eye on things while the MNR did the work. “It was totally out of our jurisdiction, the whole time. That’s what a lot of people don’t understand,” he says, responding to the criticisms that he or his predecessor on Council, Jérôme Courchesne, were not doing enough to resolve the situation for so long.
The MNR says it is unable to provide details or a timeline of the investigation, until an official statement is released. However, Pharand helped fill in some blanks based on the information he received from them. “If I remember well, he must have abandoned it in the fall,” says Pharand about the structure, adding that it spent the winter at the location where it was dumped. Charges were finally laid around April this year by the MNR. “I’m not sure about this, but I have a feeling that it was difficult for them to deal with it because it was moving around. When he was on it, it was a boat, it was a vessel. It was an eyesore of course, but what do you do about an ugly boat? It was easier to deal with once he dumped it,” suspects Pharand as to why the MNR took so long to charge Lindsay with something. The fact that the charges are related to dumping material seems to support Pharand’s suspicions.
