In the history books, this will go down as the Battle of Burl’s Creek

By Barbara Kay National Post

In my formative years, summer meant Lake Simcoe and long, halcyon summers. But today, if nobody stops them, the usual suspects are going to — as the song warns — pave paradise and put up a parking lot.

Oro-Medonte Township is a rural Ontario enclave of about 20,000 souls between Barrie and Orillia. Blessed by lush prime farmland and Lake Simcoe’s gleaming expanse, Oro-Medonte is peace personified. So it’s about the last place in Ontario one would expect to find a political war raging.

In the history books it will be known as the Battle of Burl’s Creek. Burl’s Creek is a 92-acre swath of land, zoned for gentle country events like agricultural fairs, farmers’ markets and Highland games ( no bagpipes, mind!). It was never meant to host auditorily polluting monster rock concerts.

A new owner of Burl’s Creek bought about 400 more acres of prime farmland, land supposedly protected against concerts not only by the Provincial Policy Statement, but by county and township Official Plans. Nevertheless, the owner joined entrepreneurial forces with Republic Live, a soup-to-nuts multi-day events business, whose concerts attract upwards of 80,000 fans.

Republic Live has already spent $10 million on internal roads, amphitheatres and camping resources. Its WayHome and Boots & Hearts concerts will bookend the August long weekend, with eight more mega-events planned for 2016.

Oro-Medontites won’t be the only ones to suffer the logistical nightmare created by these concerts. Anyone using an already-crowded Highway 11 to get anywhere north of Barrie, which is to say many thousands of cottage people in the GTA, will feel the impact.

Indeed, a July 13 draft report from Cole Engineering that analyzed the proposed “traffic plan” predicts significant traffic backups on Highways 11, 400 and local roads, dismissing the promoter’s assumption of “residual capacity” on Hwy 11 as “illusory.”

Permission for the shows was originally granted by Oro-Medonte’s Council through a temporary-use bylaw without statutory public consultation. The news therefore came as a shock to the population well after the project was underway, sparking an activist coalition of farmers and residents — including my sister and brother-in-law, who have a cottage there — who are determined to stop what everyone admits is the illegal occupation of the 400 acres. Republic Live is indifferent to possible penalties (what’s a $50,000 fine to a juggernaut that anticipates gates of $10-15 million per concert?).

The project contravenes every farmland and growth plan policy for which Ontario has received global accolades. Added to Council’s purposeful lack of transparency, the situation is deeply troubling. For residents to seek an injunction against these illegal concerts would require that they — impossibly — put up $10 million (the amount Republic Live could lose). Circumstances are privileging the scofflaw and hamstringing the law-abiding.

In this travesty of civic process, the onus for stopping the illegal activity appears to rest solely on the protest groups — “Save Oro” and “West Oro Ratepayers’ Association” (WORA) — to extract information Council has refused to share, and, at a cost of $50,000-plus, consult a lawyer, sound engineer, agrologist and other experts to assess the impact of the mega-concerts, as well as the positive claims made for the project.

One rationale for the concerts is alleged economic benefits to Oro-Medonte. But economist Dr. Peter Tomlinson, who lectures at the University of Toronto, has categorically rejected any such notion.

The issue has roiled the township. There are people who live far enough away from the site that the all-night partying won’t be heard in their homes, or who believe the promoter’s unfounded prophecies of economic spinoff, or who are unfazed by the disappearance — daily — of 350 acres of Ontario farmland.

But I sympathize with farmers whose routines will be disrupted, those who can’t escape the noise pollution, and residents who will be trapped in their homes by road closures and traffic gridlocks.

(How ironic it is to see über-environmentalist Neil Young featured in the coming concert, given his commitment, stated in Farm Aid, to “build[ing] a system of agriculture that values family farmers, good food, soil and water, and strong communities.”)

This may seem like a parochial issue, affecting one small district but, given the scope of Republic Live’s ambitions, the illegality of the project and the anti-democratic nature of the process, the Battle of Burl’s Creek should be a cautionary tale for similar paradises all over Canada.

Republic Live spokespeople have boasted that Burl’s Creek’s planned expansion will make it “Canada’s largest outdoor event venue.” For rock fans — here today, gone tomorrow —thrilling words. For residents, farmers and environmentalists — here today, here tomorrow — chilling words.