Editor:

I feel I must reply to your July
17th editorial comment and the
recent letters to the editor about
the marina.

Jackie Whitehead (Word gets
around on boat moorage, The
Review, July 31) states she is
“incensed that it is quoted that Mr.
Pullen’s target is the vacationer
with dollars to bum.”

I am also incensed, since I did
not make the misleading and
inflammatory remark respecting
“dollars to burn” (Port Sidney
Marina: Waiting for the tourists,
The Review, July 17.) What I said
was that tourists are Port Sidney
Marina’s main target market. This
could well have been made more
clear in your editorial comment in
order to avoid such misconception,
and certainly should have been
clarified by way of an editor’s
footnote to Ms. Whitehead’s letter:

The Marina’s dominant purpose
is to bring the vacation dollar to
the Town of Sidney. Visiting boat-
ers generally come during the
months of June-September. They
stay, they provision their boats,
they patronize the local shops and
they spend money on local ser-
vices. If we only provided annual
moorage for local boaters there
would be no incremental benefit to
the Town.

It must be remembered that the
Major motivation behind the
building of the breakwater was the
large boost to the Town’s economy
that a tourism-oriented marina in
Sidney’s town centre would pro-
vide.

Peter Maundrell, the director of
the product development branch of
the provincial Ministry of Tour-
ism, Stated in a recent letter to me
that Port Sidney Marina and its
proposed expansion was “the kind
of facility required for tourism in
the year 2000, and it presented an
excellent opportunity for the com-
munity to diversify its economy
and create jobs in the foreseeable
future.”

Ms. Whitehead refers to our
rates as “exorbitant.” In high sea-
son the Marina charges $.70 per
foot per day for overnight moorage
and offers discounts for both lon-
ger stays and frequent users. Simi-
lar rates are charged by other
marinas in British Columbia and
Washington whose facilities and
Services are no match for Port
Sidney’s. For example, Secret
Cove Marina charges $.80 per foot
per night and $6 to tie up at their
docks. They also charge the boat-
ers $1 per bag of garbage.

The old adage “You get what
you pay for” is true of Port Sidney
Marina. The vast majority of the

Marina’s marine tourists, most of
whom are very familiar with the
Martina marketplace, feel the
-Marina’s rates are fair given the
quality of the facility and it’s
services. We are not interested in
“gouging,” as Ms. Whitehead
accuses — we do, however, believe
in fair prices for services offered.

By the way, if Ms. Whitehead’s
friends pay $30 for overnight
moorage their boat must have been
42 feet in length.

The summer-long letter writing
campaign of the Sidney Rate-
payer’s Association (John and
Betty Salvador, “Help oppose the
Marina expansion,’ Aug. 7; Jim
Lang, “Make comment at next
hearing,” Aug. 7; Cy Relph,
“Province must stop expansion,”
July 10; John Wood; “Marina has
no public moorage,” June 26) also
bears mention. These letters have
interesting similarities apart from
all being penned by members of
the Ratepayer’s Association.

One similarity is that two of the
letters were written from the self-
interested point of view of water-
front property owners. For years
the writers have had, and are now
attempting to preserve, exclusive
access to the waterfront, a privi-
lege only other waterfront owners
enjoy. Waterfront property is
expensive and out of reach of
many people. The Marina, and the
entire Port development, provides
easy access to the waterfront for all
residents of Sidney.

Another similarity is that in
their zeal for maligning the
Marina, they had little regard for
accuracy on at least one occasion.
Others have come to the point
where at times they seem almost
deliberately misleading. Space
does not allow me to review each
point, so a few examples will have
to do.

Mr. and Mrs. Salvador claim
that last winter two-thirds of the
Marina’s berths were filled by
liveaboards. This is simply not
true, as we do not rent space to
liveaboards in the winter months
or any other time. Visiting boaters,
of course, will stay on their boats
while in Sidney.

Mr. Lang suggests “The passage
of such a bylaw (allowing the
Marina expansion) can only result
in further expense to those of us
who pay taxes in Sidney.”

Mr. Lang’s logic is difficult to
follow. The marina will bear all
costs of any expansion, and instead
of being a burden on the taxpayers
of Sidney the inverse is true: the
Marina and the port developer
provide a large fax base for the
Town which will expand in size
with the marina and which could

You get what you pay for at Port Sidney Marina

well reduce the tax burden which
would otherwise be bome by resi-
dents.

Several of the letters refer to
vessel sewage and pollution, and
imply that boaters are in the main
not to be trusted to avoid pumping
sewage into the harbour while
moored at the marina. —

On the contrary, I have found
boaters to be environmentally
responsible and very motivated to
protect the marine habitat which
their vessels allow them to enjoy.
The marina’s moorage rules pro-
hibit anything at all from being
discharged or dumped into the
harbor and any violations are dealt
with strictly.

Mr. Lang, Mr. Wood and Mr.
Relph all address the issue of
public access and the taxpayer’s
funding of the breakwater.

With respect to public access,
both Mr. Wood and Mr. Relph
claim Port Sidney is a private
moorage facility, and in so doing
have confused public moorage
facilities with free moorage facilit-
ies. A private moorage facility
allows only members to moor —
yacht clubs, for example. A public
moorage facility is one at which

TheReview Wednesday, Awgueh ld 1991 — Al4

anyone — for a fee — may moor.
Port Sidney Marina and its pro-
posed expansion is entirely a pub-
lic moorage facility, offering high
and low season rates and a limited
number of pre-paid long term
berths, or “dockominiums.” By
opposing the expansion of the
Marina, Mr. Wood and Mr. Relph
are therefore in reality opposing
what they profess to champion:
public access to the harbor

By construing public moorage -

as free moorage, Mr. Wood and

Mr. Relph effectively claim that -

free moorage facilities were a
condition of the breakwater’s pub-
lic funding.

I am unaware of any moorage
facility which is free. Even govern-
ment docks charge for moorage, so
in understanding past events to
mandate free moorage in the har-
bor, who do Mr. Wood and Mr
Relph believe is the unfortunate
body obligated to construct and

operate a free-of-charge facility? —

Mr. Lang takes issue with my
Statement that tourists are the
Marina’s primary target and the
breakwater’s predominant pur-
pose, and states that perhaps I

Continued on Page A15

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