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Last week, the City of Barrie held a couple of virtual sessions seeking residents' ideas on making the waterfront both welcoming and inclusive.
Our councillors, over the summer months, dealt with the issues of parking and overcrowding on the waterfront, specifically the beaches that both residents and non-residents frequented. I believe that it was Coun. Mike McCann who even went as far as calling our waterfront "a premium waterfront."
Really? The reality is that the City of Barrie has failed the residents of Barrie in one major way. What is really lacking on our waterfront are public washrooms that are accessible all year round. As someone who walks the trail on almost a daily basis, there is only one all-year-round accessible washroom which is at the visitor centre located along Lakeshore Drive.
At Centennial Beach, the huge washroom facility is locked up tight and the sign reads closed Nov. 1 to May 1.
The same can be said for Minet's Point, Heritage Park and Johnson's Beach. This is not something that is COVID-19-related, but an issue that has gone on year after year.
I do, however, remember a time when the washroom at Minet's Point was open even in winter.
Across Canada, cities are coming to the realization that this is an issue of human dignity. When you have to go you have to go! This affects residents and the homeless. Young and old, gay, straight and transgender. It affects women who menstruate and the most vulnerable in our society.
The sad reality is that individuals do have to urinate, and even defecate, in the bushes along the waterfront.
Winter is here and soon the lake will freeze over, bringing the ice fishers to our lakefront and out on the ice.
Getting back to the question of making our waterfront more welcoming and inclusive, we collectively must decide if our waterfront is a year-round space or is it seasonal, only to be used from May to the end of October?
If we are to enjoy it all year, then starting next spring let's leave public washrooms open all year.
Robert Ossowski
Barrie
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