Wait 30 Minutes After Eating Before Reading This…

…Because you are about to go off the deep-end.

Randall Denley in the Ottawa Citizen is reporting about $2.3 Million being spent on a boat transport system to haul boats around the Chat’s Falls at Fitzroy Harbour. For those who aren’t sure what I mean, a boat transport system they are talking about would entail hauling a boat out of the water on one side, and driving it up past the falls and dropping it in on the other side. (or vice versa). i.e. a couple of boat launches and a transport. The cost to the boater? $50 per trip and 24 hours notice.

The Municipality put in $350,000 and the rest was put up by the Province, the Federal Government and Ontario Power Generation.

The service would be in effect from June to September. There are several of these types of services up river and last year the total count of boats hauled in the whole system was a whopping 233 boats.

The net benefit to boaters? 50 extra km of river upstream when there are 500km of river open to them already.

How officially screwed are we taxpayers getting on this one? I would love to know who has cottages on the land which they build the two boat launches.