Thank you to everyone who came out on Saturday, 3 June 2023 to help clean up Wabagishik Lake on the Vermilion River! An especially BIG THANK YOU to the Basso family who provided lunch again this year for our hungry clean-up crew! It was a feast for all, with barbecued hamburgers and hotdogs, tasty salads and cold refreshments! A great time was had by all and we collected a huge pile of garbage! Thanks again to our membership!!
Shared with Vermilion River Stewardship and Community Members.
To view the Spanish & Vermilion Rivers Water Management Plan click here.
Photo by Al Oman
We are very concerned that subwatershed studies are not being incorporated into the Official Plan, and that this will likely have to wait until the next review (5-10 years or more from now). Our community has been waiting a long time for subwatershed studies. As a ‘City of Lakes,’ watershed health and water quality is extremely important to the community. With small, sensitive watersheds, lakes at ‘the edge’ (e.g. for phosphorus levels), and growing stress from urbanization and climate change, recommendations from subwatershed studies should be implemented as soon as possible, and integrated into city policies, including our Official Plan, in a timely manner.
The VRS recognizes the importance of finding a more equitable and sustainable way to pay for stormwater management. However, it would be best to do this by charging an additional surtax on properties with large impervious surfaces. In addition, the City should offer Green Tax Credits for those property owners removing hard surfaces and incorporating naturalized areas and green infrastructure that filters and absorbs stormwater where it falls. These measures would help fund the increased stormwater costs, discourage grey infrastructure, and encourage green infrastructure to lessen stormwater runoff.
Vale staff made an online presentation to the Vermilion River Stewardship on 14 December 2021. It was an update on the ongoing upgrades to the Wabagishik Generating Station, on the Vermilion River and the Nairn Generating Station on the Spanish River. You will find the slide deck and audio of their presentation below.
VRS strongly supports the proposed amendments in Part 4, General Provisions, Section 4.41 Waterbodies – Water Frontage, Setbacks and Buffers as follows…
Along its course, the river widens into several lakes, including Onwatin in Hanmer; Kusk off Panache Lake Road (watch out for leeches); Grassy; and Wabagishik, out on the fringes of Ward 2. Lake Wabagishik was made famous by the Group of Seven. Franklin Carmichael painted the lake in 1928 and if you have ever paddled along its waters, you will understand why he was inspired. At the southern end of Wabagishik is a set of rapids where the river narrows once again. It is very picturesque.
I fell in love with the Vermilion River last year when I decided to paddle this stretch in early October. The colours were just starting to pop and the riverbanks were explosively yellow and bright. It was like travelling through the sun. I bottomed out about six times and had to drag my kayak through the chilly shallow waters, but it was well worth the effort.
Check out Mary Katherine Keown’s article about her adventures on the Vermilion River here.
The VRS urges our Mayor and Council to take strong action to achieve this important goal. Every day we are reminded of the urgency of this goal when we see the increasingly severe and unprecedented wildfires in British Columbia, Alberta, California and Oregon. The flooding in Ontario over the last few years, and in other parts of the Country and world have devastated entire communities. Our climate is changing much more quickly than was previously predicted, and the intensity and extent of these changes are devastatingly costly in terms of life and property.
If the design objective is to meet and provide peak flow control for storm events, it is necessary to plan beyond the 1:100-year peak flow, and instead plan for the new norm of a 1:1000-year flood event. Planning for the appropriate peak flow is crucial to building climate resilience and meeting the demand over the full lifecycle of the infrastructure. If an inadequate peak flow formula is used it could result in significant additional costs to the City if it has to repair or tear up failing infrastructure to rebuild and increase capacity before it has reached its end-life. “Even a 1000-year return period has a 5% risk of being equalled or exceeded in a 50-year period.”