Resort development moves forward

INNISFIL, ON, Feb. 26 /CNW/ - Marking an important milestone in the years-long approval process, Geranium Corporation has been issued a permit by the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, (LSRCA), to exercise its right to cut trees on regulated lands within its Big Bay Point Resort property on Lake Simcoe.

Tree-cutting has been going on for several weeks on parts of the resort property that are not regulated by the LSRCA; the permit issued today covers resort lands that are under LSRCA jurisdiction.

The resort, first proposed in 2002, has been supported by the Town of Innisfil, the County of Simcoe, the province of Ontario, has been approved by the Ontario Municipal Board, and is consistent with and in compliance with provincial government policies.

Elected officials including the Premier of Ontario, provincial cabinet ministers, and local and regional representatives, have consistently indicated the resort proposal is in line with environmental, developmental and economic goals.

"The resort will bring millions of dollars in investment and taxes, and hundreds of jobs to the province," notes Geranium President, Earl Rumm.

Despite this, a small, wealthy group of local landowners, backed by a publicly-funded environmental group that enjoys charitable status, continues to interfere with established approval processes designed to implement government policies by generating a smokescreen of mistruth and misinformation.

In the latest attempt to delay the resort, its opponents interfered with the Conservation Authority process and attempted to stop it from issuing the needed permit. Geranium legal counsel, Susan Rosenthal, notes that the Conservation Authorities Act is quite clear: third parties do not have the right to stop a permit from being issued.

"Much public money has been wasted responding to the fictions created by the Innisfil District Association and its publicly-funded friends at Environmental Defence," says Rosenthal, who adds the money could have been better spent actually improving Lake Simcoe.

For further information: Jim Maclean, [phone]