Proposed: Commercial Light Industry and Storage Sites at Star Lake

***ATTENTION SOUTH WHITESHELL COTTAGERS****

Please take a min to read.

 As many of you have seen and heard over the last week or so on social media and the other media outlets of a proposed commercial / light industrial area. I first of all would like to thank the residents that have finally brought this back into the public eye. I am a cottage (home) based business in Westhawk that has been the main proponent for a commercial / light industrial area. Before I go into the whole background of how we are at this point today I would like everyone to know the whole point of this was to find a spot for local cottage based businesses to go to minimize the impact on our neighbors and surrounding recreational activities. I am here today to provide my story, some info and to ask for your support at least for the need for an area and maybe some suggestions of a better spot.

 I have grown up as a weekender and summer resident of falcon lake working at the local restaurants and delivering news papers. After obtaining my civil engineering technology diploma  and working a few years in northern Manitoba I realized i needed to be back in my “happy” place the south Whiteshell. I moved back the area in 1999 and worked out of Kenora for a heavy construction company as well as starting a septic hauling company with another resident in the park. With getting married and starting a family it was decided that I needed to be home more than being on remote projects. In order to do that I started Dargys yard construction in 2009.

 In 2010 I tried to apply to build a shop in a vacant piece of property I own adjacent to my house property. This was denied because a few of my neighbors did not like it in their “back yard “ I totally understand and thus started my journey to where we are today.

In 2011 I start my twice a year request for a meeting in Winnipeg with parks staff to open more space like they had in the past for existing businesses to expand and a few new ones to set up shop. The meetings went on for a few years. Finally I was told that was the past and until I showed a need for more than just myself nothing would happen. So I got together a group of us cottage based businesses and started back at parks. As many as you know parks is a revolving door of staff and positions as well as new government mandates which added to the frustration.

 In 2013 parks started looking at it. They made some progress in the next year or so and finally in 2015/16 they came up with a list of convoluted eligibility and criteria that if a location was secured we the cottage based businesses would have to adhere to ( not all ideal but I realized sacrifices would have to be made by all us for this to work).

Throughout this whole time I also pursued in some fashion any existing commercial properties that have been for sale to see if I could relocate to them. I was not looking for a hand out just looking for somewhere to stop annoying the “residential “ area I work out of.

 In 2017 parks picked a location they thought would work ( not the cottage based businesses pick). To complete the public process they held an open house. The location quickly caused an uproar and a petition  in which myself and I am sure the other businesses understood it might not be the best location.

 This basically halted the process. After dealing with retirements, elections, and just a whole lot of nothing being done to find a suitable location, we went to talk to our local member of parliament in 2019 to help get rolling again. Last fall parks let us know that they had 3 locations they were looking at and would proceed in the spring with the due diligence ( is public meetings and feed back). Again I want to enforce the locations were pick by parks.  Well this spring brought us the COVID-19 and everything was put back on hold. In June I could see yet another year of no progress and complaints from neighbors. I was told that with Covid they would have to mail out info instead of a public meeting but had no funding to work any further on the project. I went back to our member of parliament and asked for help. Over the summer parks was given the funding to continue on.

This has brought us to today where I thought it was time to let everyone know my and other businesses story.

To the residents in the affected PROPOSED areas I understand your concerns and questions and personally agree with some of it. All Myself and other cottage based businesses are asking is that when emailing Dale please support our cause and maybe even give your feedback on a suitable location.

To all other residents that haven’t received a letter please email Dale to support a proper area for us to go. Maybe if everyone in the area provides feedback we can find an area to coexist and continue providing our local services without causing frustration to our neighbors.

Please email Dale Sobkowich at Dale.sobkowich@gov.mb.ca

Thanks for your time and supporting our family business for the last 10 years.
Brent D’Argis