Grant Machan, Perth’s director of environmental services, brought forward a report on a council request for staff to investigate the sediment and vegetation removal at the shoreline frontage of 20 Thom Street and to clarify government stakeholders’ roles when working at the shoreline and in the river. Approvals for activities along the Tay River shoreline are the mandate of the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority (RVCA) and activities within the riverbed are controlled by the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation, and Parks, the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
The property owners are asking for the town to complete the work at no cost to them. Machan pointed out that there was only a 4 meter wide access to the shoreline in question and that the town would have to look for outside expertise just to wade through the number of approval applications required. As experts have told the town that removing the sediment without correcting the lack of water flow would only be a temporary solution, the committee opted to defer any decision on the matter until the rocky ramp redesign issue comes back to them for discussion in the first quarter of next year.