At least one lake in Ontario’s popular Muskoka cottage country is implementing an all-day ban against “yelling, shouting, hooting, whistling, singing or other similar human sound.”
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Myers Lake in the Township of Georgian Bay has extended the region’s existing noise bylaw into the daytime, effectively asking cottagers to keep quiet 24 hours a day. That means no loud music, no singing, no screaming, no whistling. For area woman Janet Stinson, it sounds like no fun too.
“I like to sing! I like the noise!” she told CTV Barrie. “Quiet is not good.”
A complaint can land a noisy reveler — or the owner of a rented property — with a $180 fine. The stringent noise restrictions were already in effect from the hours of 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. the next morning, but for some owners on the small 61-cottage lake, just south of Lakes Joseph and Rosseau, that was not enough.
“If you go to a hotel are you allowed to make this kind of noise? If you got to another resort are you allowed to make this kind of noise? No,” said Mayor Larry Braid, while noting that the main problem seems to be loud stereo systems, not necessarily loud people. “I don’t imagine our bylaw officer is going to give someone a ticket just for singing,” he told CTV Barrie.
“However, if it goes out through a boom box, and you can hear it several hundred feet away, that’s likely going to be offensive to neighbours up there.”
The amended bylaw specifically pertains to Myers Lake, officials said. However, this summer will be a kind of test for the region. Township council will assess how the bylaw plays out, and if it fails, it may be scrapped.
If it’s effective, more lakes in the Georgian Bay area could face the same silencing effect.
With a report from CTV Barrie’s Rob Cooper
