New businesses have sprung up on Highway 6

The Haldimand Press, Wednesday, September 5,2007

Editor:

A couple of new businesses have sprung up on Highway 6, south of Caledonia  (who says there’s no growth in Haldimand?). Smoke shacks-the new blight!  Ugly buildings run by unscrupulous people, peddling a harmful commodity in a ‘rules, what rules/’ fashion. Having turned D.C.E. into an embarrassing eyesore 9cost to taxpayers?-don’t ask!), now it appears that some of our Indian friends are determined to ruin the scenery to the south.

To determine the status of the properties, I visited the Land Registry Office.  The two farms in question were purchased by the Band Council several years ago.  They are not Reserve land, they are deeded land, legally subject to Haldimand By-Laws and taxation.

Armed with this information, I went to Haldimand County office to file a complaint.  It appears that property taxes have never been paid.  There are no permits of any sort issued.  Both the Band Council and the Smoke-Shackers should be going to the “penalty box”.

I was eager to ‘sic’ the By-Law officer on the Shackers, but was informed, much to my dismay, the properties are “in limbo” (now, there’s an official-sounding term!).  Haldimand County, I was told, has no jurisdiction there.  (Around here, laws have a nasty habit of disappearing down the commode!).

One of the Shackers had previously been in business in the same location (late one night his Shack morphed into “The Charcoal Café).  Aside from the proprietor and his unprincipled customers (and his supplier, of course) there was universal contempt for the place-he hadn’t even asked permission of the property owner.

I called the Band Council to see if common courtesy was tried this time around.  I called four different numbers, each time asking the same question and getting the same answer:  “We really don’t know, call ‘this’ number.”  (I can state with confidence that we don’t have a monopoly on incompetent governments.)  It seems safe to say that permission was neither requested or granted.

An OPP Inspector was questioned about the shacks.  He claimed one was supposed to be an ‘Information Booth.”  That one (a deluxe model-extra big) had put in a driveway on Fifth Line and a parking lot (no permits!).  A couple of days later a driveway went in off Highway 6 (no permit).  A “Cheap Smokes” sign went up (I guess the information business wasn’t panning out).

I obtained the number for M.T.O. (getting a permit for a driveway off a King’s Highway is like getting milk from a billygoat!).  I gave all the information I had to a local reporter.  I have to go to work.  I have a feeling that my taxes are going up.

-Doug Fleming

Resident of Caledonia