County to operate Picton Harbour marina for new owner

By Sharon Harrison
The terms of a proposed draft lease agreement for an area of Picton Harbour known as Water Lot 1, was approved by council at Thursday’s committee of the whole meeting.

The agreement with the new owner, Casa Dea Finance Limited, is expected to be enacted at the April 7 council meeting, along with updated fees and charges for 2026 to cover new charges for seasonal and transient slip rental rates.

“The owner proposed that the County operate the docks on their behalf for the 2026 season at a 70/30 (owner/County) split of revenues from rentals of the slips on Water Lot 1,” states Albert Paschkowiak, supervisor of environmental services and sustainability, in his report.

It is expected that the agreement would be for one boating season, to run from May to the end of November 2026.

County staff met with the new owner of the Water Lot 1 docks twice in early March to review their proposal and the terms of a potential agreement where a number of points were discussed.

These included legalities, operations, risk assessment, etc. and adjusting the layout of the docks to address the issue of their current encroachment onto Water Lot 2 (hindering access and efficient operations at the fuel dock).

“The County would be the exclusive manager of the docks dealing with all aspects of the business, including bookings, minor maintenance (keeping docks clean, etc.) and serving customers.”

Councillor Phil Prinzen and several of his colleagues weren’t totally comfortable with percentages, specifically the 70/30 revenue split being proposed, suggesting he liked 60/40 better, with others indicating 50/50 would be even better. Paschkowiak noted too the 10 percent required for the Ministry of Natural Resources remittances will come out of the County’s 30 per cent portion.

“I don’t think it’s enough,” said Prinzen, referring to the 70/30 split, “there are too many unknowns. I just don’t think its worth our effort at 70/30 – obviously 50/50 would be even better, but I’m okay with 60/40.”

Paschkowiak said different scenarios had been explored, and what is being proposed is the offering from the owner.

Councillor John Hirsch said he would like to have seen discussions around 60/40 as opposed to 70/30. “Although, I think we will see significantly increased traffic, and so we will get some revenue there,” shared Hirsch.

Troy Gilmour, director of operational services advised council to be cautious in their decision.

“We did our negotiations and we agreed the 70/30; 60/40 would be great, 50/50 would be even better,” said Gilmour. “However, there is a significant cost on their part that we are going to reap the benefits of, and the community is going to reap the benefits of.”
“I’m just fearful of losing the boating season, so just be careful which way we go here, I don’t think it’s a bad deal and we are still going to generate some good revenue.”

After some discussion around the horseshoe, it was agreed that the 70/30 would be acceptable to most given that the agreement was for a one-year term only, where the key points were to save the boating season and to generate some revenue, but also use the one-year period to gain greater insight into the maximum potential for the harbour.

Paschkowiak noted that the County would operate the docks presently in Water Lot 1 alongside the County’s existing boardwalk docks.

“As part of the agreement, the owner has considered reconfiguring these docks and remove the encroachment on Water Lot 2, so the docks that are currently there would be relocated and also, they proposed to add water and power to this reconfiguration of their docks. And this in advance of the boating season, permit pending.“

In the 2025 season, the marina generated approximately $31,100 from docking operations with a 25 percent occupancy rate on the County’s docks, with approximately 525 visiting boats.

“Many opting not to take seasonal slips or to rent transient slips, either because there was no hydro service available, because they were not aware of what slips were available, and/or because they found it difficult to reach the marina due to the lack of communication including very high frequency (VHF) marina radio.”

“The addition of water and power is anticipated to improve the number of potential users,” he said. “While it was noted that adding power and water is a risk to the owner without the County being able to enter into a longer-term agreement at this time, the owner recognizes that these services will help to maximize the revenue potential on the Water Lot 1 docks.”

However, Paschkowiak emphasized the unknowns and the associated risk.

“We don’t know how many boaters we will get, we have no idea, we know how many we got last year and can realistically bank on having those again, but the increase is unknown,” he said.

“This is a risk; we don’t know what’s going to happen this year, we are uncertain of how many boats, but I keep coming back to the fact that it’s a one-year term, and that term really is to determine what’s going on so council can be informed in a year to make better longer-term decisions.”

There is significant possibility to have a very large amount of revenue there given there are 67 slips, said Paschkowiak. “If you occupy those slips 100 per cent of the time with an average of a 30-foot boat, its significant, it’s in the 700-plus range. Will that happen in reality, probably not.”

Regarding ownership, councillor Brad Nieman asked if the County are assured that Casa Dea is the owner of the docks, to which Sarah Viau, director of corporate and legislative services, said they had received the transfer document of ownership confirming same.

Hirsch further asked if there is any potential impact on the on-going unresolved litigation with the previous ownership, asking if there was any impact on the deal, or on the litigation.

“What is being put forward to council today is not a risk in that perspective,” confirmed Viau.

The proposed partnership would add approximately 67 slips to compliment the existing 14 slips currently operated by the County. Improved hours are expected to extend to a maximum of 12-hours per day on weekends and other high-volume days in order to maximize potential revenues.