Town hall planned on Pelican Lake invasive program

The local government at Pelican Lake plans to share financials about its aquatic invasive species program at a town hall early in the new year.

RM of Prairie Lakes Reeve Darren Seymour says the Jan. 4 town hall will include key details from the first year of the anti-zebra mussel program at the lake, provide a chance for feedback and look ahead to next year.

“We said all along that we wanted to be transparent with the program and the financial end of the program,” Seymour told the Sun on Friday. “We also want to hear if there’s, you know, definite pros or cons to how the program worked.”

The meeting to discuss the program’s first year is planned to take place at 2 p.m. at the Ninette Community Hall.

The RM restricted access to Pelican Lake at the start of the season in a bid to prevent zebra mussels from entering. Just one boat launch was open to the public, and all other launches were available only for locals if they committed to a one-boat, one-lake policy. Inspections took place at the public boat launch. Mandatory fees were collected to help the program pay for itself.

Officials plan to outline how that program worked in the town hall presentation, including the number of people who purchased tags for the one-boat, one-lake policy, the number of boat inspections conducted and the breakdown of costs, Seymour said.

Zebra mussels have not been discovered in the lake as of Friday, he said. The efforts to keep the species out of the lake are not guaranteed to work, he noted, and so it is good to see that no mussels have been detected.

“The fact that we’ve had testing done and it shows no evidence, that’s a positive for us going forward,” Seymour said. “So far, we’ve been successful.”

There may come a time when zebra mussels are found, he added. But even while the RM cannot guarantee that zebra mussels will stay out of the lake, it must do what it can, he said.

“I would rather err on the side of trying to protect the lake, and if something happens, something happens,” he said. “But to sit back and do nothing and then go, ‘Well, how come we got them?’ Well, you really didn’t do what you could do to help yourself.”

Several boats were turned away during the season as they came from areas of Manitoba that are known to have zebra mussels, Seymour said. The boats had to decontaminate and then come back to Pelican Lake.

Seymour said that the RM does not foresee any major changes to its program next year. But the town hall will provide a chance to hear concerns and guide future decisions.

“We certainly will listen to that and take it into account for next year’s season.”

Preliminary figures show that the program raised revenue in the ballpark of estimates that were used earlier in the year to forecast the program costs, he said. Final numbers are expected to be available on Jan. 4.

Inspections were $40, and the decal for locals was $100. An option was given for visitors to pay $5 to tie their boat to their trailer, proving they didn’t go in other lakes, and allow them to skip inspections next time.

The fees collected in the program went toward inspection staff at the Ninette boat launch and for infrastructure, such as chains and keypads, that was installed at roughly 20 launches around the lake.

The RM applied for funding to support the program and received $120,278 this year from the province.

The program was funded by fees rather than tax dollars so that the program was paid for only by people who use the lake, Seymour said.

The RM of Prairie Lakes plans to apply again for funding for the 2026 season.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com