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Having reviewed several Muskoka/Kawartha/Parry Sound Cottage Association websites for least partial, accurate reporting, and discovering few with substantial details, I discovered FOCA, Federation of Ontario Cottage Associations, umbrella body for all Ontario Cottage Associations choosing to be members. Being largely a lobby group, they have broad CV19 reporting details and recommendations, inclusive of Provincial statements & announcements in chronological order over 6-8 week period & running. FOCA has full time professional staff, with accurate reporting mandate serving CA's from Quebec to Manitoba, versus specific/local CA mandates.
Most local CA's are staffed by volunteers, often retirees, some accused of having their own agendas & sticking their noses flagrantly in other people’s business; I have seen exactly this over 40+years, very divisive within a local/lake community. CA's are obviously biased toward their region, lake, and arguably only to some members by having high jacked the board. They are now likely overwhelmed, no surprise hesitant to provide details at local lake level as it runs the risk of political conflagration, backlash from and between their permanent vs seasonal residents, thus best to communicate little or nothing, the politically safe thing to do.
FOCA's CV19 reporting is broad & above local politics, information seems to be salient & balanced without political risk of an appearance of taking sides in local municipalities, associations, one status of property owner vs another.

FOCA link: https://foca.on.ca/covid-19-update-from-foca/


OPP roads travel advisory, addressing freedom of travel, not issuing fines, video statement 2weeks ago: https://www.facebook.com/OPPHSD/videos/ ... DUwMjUxOA/

thanks for that link to that OPP video, Mr. Hyodroid

Disclaimer Luksep has a canoe rental business

I hope that includes ninja style canoe and paddler drop off.

I was wondering why no one is using their boats at the marina..

Eric...put your pants back on and wash your hands..


Every boat ramp in our area is locked down including lakes that don't have any water access properties (my lake for example) and even our trails have been barricaded. So, it's not necessarily a war on cottagers. I do find it odd that restricting the movement of our 2 dozen island cottagers that would actually come up this time year is somehow making a difference. Makes good press maybe. I have zero desire to head down the bay to sit (without water) and watch the snow fall lol.

I have reluctantly blocked our ramp at the marina more so to limit traffic through the property but it's open to our customers.

Tom if you want to make a trip across the sound I'll make sure you have a place to launch.

FOCA is a useful organization supportive of cottagers' rights.

Have to add that I know the head honcho -- Terry Rees -- he used to work for me, then he left the downtown corporate world, joined FOCA and moved to much less stressful Peterborough. A couple of seasons ago he came out to the Sep Peterborough race, and spent most of the day checking out the action.

I'm in complete agreement with opinions expressed previously and really don't have anything to add to your experiences in the Muskoka region. I can however offer a point of view from Kawartha, Lindsay area in particular.
I haven't heard of nor noticed cottage owners being denied access to their properties in this region. I will point out however that local council has done a good job of deterring anyones' desire to do so. They pretty much shut everything down April 7 with the following announcement... https://www.kawarthalakes.ca/en/living- ... ation.aspx
Briefly this covers everything, City Hall, transit, parks, trails and yes boat ramps in addition to commercial closures mandated by ON Gov. So even if a cottager comes up with the intention to work on their property they won't be able to buy anything to facilitate it.
Missing from their notice is temporary suspension of short term cottage rentals and opening of trailer parks. No info's been posted on duration of that but it's looking like end of May at least.

Another couple of points...
- Trent Severn waterway announced locks will remain closed to end of May
- Kawartha Conservation announced yesterday that all in person activities are cancelled through end of Sept. That date is significant as I fear other government services may take a que from them and follow suit with similar closures.
https://www.kawarthaconservation.com/en ... -2020.aspx

As I live on Scugog I have a pretty good vantage point and it's safe to say there's been no boat activity for better than 2 weeks. Zero, zip, nada. A few individuals got their boats in early April but no one's going out in them.

Keep up the good work in Muskoka. I'll post anything of importance for this area as info becomes available.

Municipal boat ramps scheduled to open May 14 in Kawartha region.

Game On!!!!
Im sure all boat launches have been graded and fixed up in the down time. Really looking forward to using our newly freashened up ramps

Oh ya sure.
Live in hope, die in despair.