‘Ottawa’ Frustrated Trailer Park Residents Struggle Under 2-Year Water Advisory
Residents of a trailer park for retirees in Eganville, Ont., 135 kilometres west of Ottawa, say a two-year boil water advisory has reduced them to living in “Third World conditions,” while they wait for the the park’s absentee owner to comply with a government order to fix the problem.
The 14 year-round residents of Cedar Beach Resort, located off Highway 60 on the shore of Mink Lake, have been under the boil advisory since May 2014.
‘Every morning I get up and boil some rainwater. It’s very upsetting.’ – Hilary Packard
Last July things got worse when the single well that serves the community stopped delivering a consistent supply of water.
Now, water only flows from the taps for about two hours in the morning, and again for about two hours in the evening, when residents Norm and Lorraine Clost walk to the well and manually turn it on.
Hilary Packard bought her mobile home on leased land in September, 2012, before the water problems began.
‘It’s like Third World conditions’
“Basically, we have no running water, and definitely no potable water. It’s like Third World conditions,” Packard said. “Every morning I get up and boil some rainwater. It’s very upsetting.”
Packard boils water collected from a rain barrel to flush her toilet and water her plants. The 65-year-old buys bottled water for drinking.
But Packard has been unable to reach the owner of the land her trailers sits on.
In protest, she’s painted a sign on her wall reading, “Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.” Some of her neighbours have displayed similar slogans.
John Miller has also been frustrated in his attempts to contact the landowner, Frank Ye.
No answer from landowner
“You keep phoning and you get no answer. There’ s an answering machine and nobody gets back. Nobody,” said Miller.
In March, Packard and three neighbours took their complaints to Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board.
The board, relying on evidence from Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change showing Ye hadn’t maintained the well or regularly tested the drinking water since taking ownership of the park in 2010, ruled in favour of the residents.
“Residents are now faced with extended periods of no water being supplied to them,” provincial water inspector Jen Bitten wrote in a summary of the case sent to Packard on March 22.
But like the residents, the ministry was unable to contact Ye, who’s listed as residing in Peterborough, Ont.
“Contact with Mr. Ye has been by email only. The numerous phone numbers that have been provided either do not reach a live person, cannot leave a message or are simply not in service. No message left at any of the phone numbers has been returned to date,” Bitten wrote.
Efforts by CBC to reach Frank Ye were also unsuccessful.
Board issued fine, awarded damages
The Landlord and Tenant Board fined Ye $6,000 and awarded Packard and the complainants retroactive damages of $50 per month to offset the cost of buying drinking water.
The board gave Ye until May 6 to fix the community’s well system.
But so far, there’s been no answer from Ye, and with just days to go before that deadline, there’s no sign of work on the well.
“I honestly did believe that when we went to the Landlord and Tenant Board that he would be responsible, considerate enough to treat us with respect. We’re respecting his property. We look after our places, we make them nice. These are our homes,” Packard said. “You’d think somebody would say, ‘Enough,’ because this guy does have a track record of this.”
In April 2014, Ye was fined $12,000 for failing to comply with an environment ministry order related to the regular testing of drinking water systems at a trailer park he owns in Madoc, Ont.
The ministry ordered him to pay a victim fine surcharge of $3,000 in that case.
Eviction notice
In 2010, Ye was convicted of assault, fined and slapped with a nine-month driving prohibition after he drove a front-end loader into a resident at the Madoc park during an argument.
To complicate matters, Ye wrote to Cedar Beach Resort’s year-round residents in December, informing them he intends to turn the trailer park into a seasonal camp ground.
Packard used RRSP savings to pay the $26,000 asking price for her 22-year-old trailer. Many residents say the cost of moving mobile homes that haven’t been mobile for decades will exceed their value.
“This is the last of my savings,” said Packard. “It’s really infuriating, really frustrating and if I get too worked up about it it’s depressing.”