Waterfront owner responds

Re. Ian Palmer's letter Agrees, dock action needed (Castanet, Aug. 4)

Docks, docks, docks.

There sure seems to be a great deal of questioning regarding the above—some from readers wondering about the facts, or from readers like Mr. Palmer, who has no facts but clearly thinks everyone living on the lake is rich.

His disdain is clear - if only he (knew) how much I pay in taxes instead of getting preferential treatment.

So these are the facts:

All docks built in B.C.—freshwater or salt water, require a permit from the province. That is achieved by an application to Front Counter BC and must include details about size, location, materials, environmental impacts in most zones etc.

It is a rigid process that can take more than two years. There are very few non-permitted or illegal docks and the enforcement is very real. The permit is called a foreshore lease because you are ??leasing the area above the water for the dock from the province, which owns the lake up to the high water mark.

There is a cost to hold this lease and it needs to be renewed every 10 years.

In addition a permit and sign-off is required by Transport Canada under the Navigations Act.

There are also very strict criteria applied— water must be a certain depth, there is a maximum distance the dock can extend out into the lake, for new or rebuilt docks, since 2018, there must be steps to allow beach walkers to go up and over.

I can assure Mr. Palmer that those of us who have had successful careers and live on the water pay far more in taxes than we receive in benefits from the government.

In fact, we subsidize the system that he benefits from

Shawn Thomas, West Kelowna