The family at the centre of a dispute over the termination of a lease of their summer home at Point Traverse in Prince Edward County say they’re not giving up as their livelihood is at stake.
Several decades ago, Canada Wildlife Services took over Point Traverse but fishermen in the area were told their building and cottage leases would remain and commercial fishing could continue on.
On August 31, the lease for the last remaining cottage, serving as the McCormack family’s summer fishing home, was terminated and the building was boarded up.
The cottage has been there for 75 years.
Jordan McCormack and his family have been fishing out of Point Traverse for generations.
He says he feels the Minister of Environment doesn’t see the benefit of commercial fishing and that they’ll shut down the harbour and, in turn, the McCormack’s business next.
“We catch 80% of the quota that’s allocated out of that harbour every year. So that works out to about 120,000 pounds of fish.”
Bay of Quinte MP Ryan Williams voiced his support for the family this week, calling on the Ministry to reverse its decision.
McCormack says they’ve started a petition to try and stop the cottage’s demolition.
“So it’s starting to get a little traction. Like I say more and more people are signing by the minute here and we’re gonna hopefully hit a few thousand signatures and give it to Ryan Williams and hopefully he can do something with it for us. Hopefully it ends with us getting the leases back and them doing the right thing.”
Almost 600 people had signed the petition as of noon Friday.
“Two hundred-plus years of history and it’s important that we keep this going for future generations. It’s a very important part of Canadian history.”
The Ministry of Environment issued a statement saying that terminating the leases will allow Environment Climate Change Canada to restore the area to its natural state and ensure compliance with the Canada Wildlife Act which does not allow the use of National Wildlife Area lands for commercial or private purposes.
