Skootamatta District Ratepayers Association

S.D.R.A.


Economic Development Committee Update - January 2009

The announcement in the fall of 2007 of a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a multi-million dollar eco-tourism resort - to be located on Sheldrake Lake took most residents completely by surprise, as there was no communication from any of the partners involved in the issuance of the RFP. The SDRA quickly publicized the facts surrounding the RFP on this website, proceeded to become as fully informed as possible and provided a response to the RFP. Following the closing date of the RFP, the SDRA was informed by the Reeve that the RFP did not receive any respondents, and that the proposal was being shelved. An update on this issue was provided at the AGM, and following much spirited discussion on the subject and a motion from the floor, the committee was formed to work with the partners, (MNR, L&A County, AH Township), to review the proposal, assess the impacts on the two lakes, (Sheldrake and Skootamatta), and report back to the membership.

One of our first actions was to formally approach the Township regarding the lack of communication around the RFP process, and a presentation was made to their Sept 2/08 meeting. In order to provide us with more access to information around the RFP specifically, and development in general, they provided a position on the AHEAD Committee for our committee. This position is currently filled by Bill Garnish from the SDRA.

Secondly we met with the MNR to identify our issues and concerns over the lack of communication from all the partners; and enlisted their support in keeping the lines of communication open to all stakeholders. They agreed to keep us in the communication process and urge the other levels of government to do the same.

Thirdly we met to discuss and identify a strategy and list of actions we believe necessary in the event of a unilateral re-issue of the RFP. This activity is still underway and will provide an approach that can be kept updated and readily available if our other approaches are not successful. Further information of this will be available as it evolves.

As a result of these efforts, we have been advised there was an attempt to revise the RFP to make it “less onerous” to respondents and re-issue it in the winter of 2008; however recent feedback from the MNR indicates the release has been delayed until the spring of 2009. We are continuing to monitor the progress and will update this site as new information is available.

Concurrently and coincidentally with our activities, Dr. Robert McLeman from the University of Ottawa brought a group of students to the Addington Highlands area to conduct a study of eco-tourism potential in the area. After discussion with a number of stakeholder groups in the area, (including local business people/entrepreneurs, social organizations, local governments our committee), they decided to focus on the site identified in the RFP. The students were broken into three separate groups, with each to produce their own independent report. The decision to make the reports publicly available was left to each group, and two of the groups decided to publicly release their reports. The following is a brief analysis of the findings in their two reports.

The reports (Nov. ’08) were produced by 13 students from the University of Ottawa as part of their senior Environmental Studies field course under Professor Robert McLeman. He advised them to “...to do their best to come up with a specific development proposal that might work under the terms of the RFP...” (Sheldrake Lake Eco-Lodge involving the sale of Crown Land by MNR-Fall ‘07).

Dr. McLeman also states the following caveat in his Preface of their reports: “None of the students is from this region, and few have been exposed to the concepts of ecotourism prior to this project. None are engineers or professional developers, and so perhaps some of what they suggest may be economically inadvisable, physically impossible, and/or overly optimistic. The reports’ strength is in the imagination and originality that these fresh set of eyes bring to the RFP. It is my hope and theirs that these reports will be of some service in stimulating discussion and reflection in Addington Highlands.”

Dr. McLeman has circulated these reports to various interested parties, including the Skootamatta District Ratepayers Association’s Development Committee and Addington Highlands Township; and has assured us that we have his permission to use, and further circulate, these reports at our discretion.

Upon review, summary comments are as follows:

  1. This is the first independent and unbiased review of the RFP, and should be viewed that way by both those in favour and those against the MNR Crown Land sale and the RFP on Sheldrake Lake.
  2. The students were motivated to find a way for the RFP to be viable, as proposed and as located.
  3. The students, despite the above caveat by Dr. McLeman, have developed considerable knowledge related to the RFP that should not be dismissed lightly - in fact, more knowledge and expertise than many of the people more formally involved in the execution and decision making processes surrounding the RFP.
  4. The conclusions of both reports should be of grave concern, both to the parties in favour and to any developer, relative to the obvious high failure risk of the RFP as currently contemplated.

The full reports are available below. We encourage you to review them in detail.

Herdes Group Report (600 Kb)

Maldemay Group Report (1.3 Mb)

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