January hearing will decide if Blueberry Creek can continue its short-term rental
PERTH — A Superior Court hearing over the future of Blueberry Creek Nature Centre’s short-term rental has been delayed until January 2026.
Tay Valley Township is seeking an injunction to shut down the rental on the Highway 7 property, which also houses a not-for-profit forest school.
Reeve Rob Rainer said the case is narrow in scope.
“Of note, the current matter before the court concerns only the use as a short-term rental, and that there are no matters currently before the court regarding the use as a forest school,” Rainer said in a Sept. 25 email response to questions from Hometown News.
Asked if council has a policy supporting outdoor schools, Rainer said there is no formal policy, adding the township “supports such schools so long as their siting and operations comply with applicable law.” On legal and planning costs tied to Blueberry Creek, Rainer declined to provide a figure, directing the question to Ontario’s freedom-of-information process. He also rejected owner Robyn Mulcahy’s allegation of harassment.
“There is a disagreement over whether operation of the short-term rental is legal, and the Court has been asked to decide on this,” he wrote, adding this is the first matter the township has taken against Mulcahy in court.
Mulcahy disputes that framing, saying the township has threatened to take her to court five separate times since 2017, even before filing this application. She added the township has never once asked about the centre’s safety protocols, despite citing floods and bridge access in its filings.
She said the short-term rental, which has been in operation since 2017 without issue, helps underwrite a community service.
Mulcahy said the township’s latest affidavit, which relied on photos of past floods and raised questions about bridge compliance, misses the point. She said she had asked the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority to replace the bridge as far back as 2018, and annual delays forced her to close the rental and operate offsite each spring. She said she has long suspected the work was intentionally delayed until the studio dispute was resolved, a process that dragged out for more than five years. She said she cannot speak about the studio issue as it is closed under a confidentiality clause.
Mulcahy estimates she has spent more than $400,000 since 2017 on lawyers and related costs. Preparing for the injunction fight alone has forced her to retain experts the township hired first.
“We’re looking at roughly $80,000 just for this hearing,” she said. “All to prove what should be a simple question: do we meet the definitions for the zoning we’re in, yes or no?”
For Mulcahy, the January hearing is about more than the rental.
“This has never been about safety. It is about a nine-year pattern of harassment,” she said. “Tay Valley Township only launched the legal case against us after our new bridge had been completed, our legal case against them settled, and the MTO finalizing a timeline to widen the culvert at Highway 7. What it does mean is families will have to pay more for a not-for-profit community service, and cut our free community use.”
Mulcahy has also written to Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack, asking for an investigation into what she called a pattern of legal harassment and misuse of public funds by Tay Valley Township. In the letter, she raised concerns about municipal lawyers serving as both township counsel and integrity commissioners, which she described as a conflict of interest.
Hometown News has asked the minister’s office for comment.
The court date in January will decide whether the short-term rental continues and whether the nature centre can keep its current funding model.
Related Articles:
- OPINION: Time to stop the Blueberry Creek Nature Centre backlash
- ‘We’re not going anywhere’: Inside Blueberry Creek’s long fight to stay open
- ‘I belong here’: Families defend Blueberry Creek Nature Centre amid legal feud
- Court date looms for Blueberry Creek Nature Centre in Tay Valley Township near Perth
