Hearing a chorus of dissent from Ramara residents for a safety review of an aerodrome on Lake Couchiching, Mayor Basil Clarke has issued a letter to several authorities calling for change.
Operations related to aviation do not fall under municipal jurisdiction. However, the township is asking Transport Canada and other relevant authorities to take action.
“This isn’t just one person landing a plane,” said Clarke. “This is a commercial business that is now set up in what you’d call a residential area near these children’s camps.”
The letter requests an evaluation of the adequacy of flight paths and operational procedures of Lake Country Airways, as well as its impacts on recreational activities. It also stresses the importance of community engagement.
“Council further encourages consultation with local residents, community organizations, businesses, and other affected stakeholders prior to approving docking sites or other facilities associated with water aerodrome operations,” states the letter that was sent last week.
Lake Country Airways is a commercial airline. It charters flights to surrounding areas and trains new pilots.
Roughly 300 metres across from the aerodrome where novice pilots take off and land is Camp Couchiching. In the summer, young campers learn how to kayak and canoe and operate sailboats. They swim and use the same bay as the float planes daily.
Since Lake Country Airways relocated to the bay of Lake Couchiching, its proximity to the camp and other recreational lake users has been causing many to fear how safe it really is.
Camp staff and local residents say the planes are taking off and landing from the small bay instead of more open waters.
Clarke said he was surprised to learn there was no public consultations prior to setting up the commercial water aerodrome.
“When you’re establishing a runway, there is public input into the runway … I would have expected public input just like when the Lake St. John (Orillia Ramara) Regional Airport wanted to lengthen their runway; there was protocol for public input prior to granting that extension,” explained the mayor.
Considering the relocation of Lake Country Airways’ operation, Clarke said this is more like creating a new runway, not just lengthening one.
After hearing a deputation from Jen Dundas, executive director of Camp Couchiching, and the voices of several locals who support her at last week’s council meeting, Ramara decided to submit a letter to Transport Canada, Steven MacKinnon, the province’s Minister of Transport, Adam Chambers, MP Simcoe North, and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
Copied on that letter were the other municipalities of Simcoe County and the Chippewas of Rama First Nation.
The most significant thing Clarke said he has heard from residents are the “close encounters.”
“You don’t hear the airplane coming in when it’s landing,” he said, describing what local residents have told him.
“I was talking to a gentleman not too long ago that was in his powerboat. He didn’t see the plane because it was coming in behind him.”
The Doppler Effect, as referred to by physicists, is the phenomenon of how a moving source of sound changes what it sounds like compared to if that source were stationary.
When it comes to the seaplane scenario, other factors also come into play. For instance, sound lags. By the time the noise of a plane engine reaches your ears the plane has already moved forward. Jet engines are also built to direct most of their noise behind the aircraft.
The combination of not seeing or hearing the plane approaching from behind, with being below the plane in its blind spot, the mayor said, is an example of the “near misses” he hears about.
The best outcome of the safety review, Clarke said, would be for the seaplanes to taxi in and out of the bay they share with the camp. Taking off and landing may be more safely accomplished in the open lake, he noted.
“We need to view the behaviours that are going on now and then we need to clearly establish a runway that is well outside where the kayakers and swimmers are,” said Clarke.
Ramara’s letter requesting the safety review may be found here.
In June, Chambers brought the aerodrome fight to the House of Commons.
As of Monday afternoon, a change.org petition, started by Dundas, to cease operations of Lake Country Airways until a safety review is conducted had 1,684 signatures.
By Danielle Pitman, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Jul 20, 2026 at 12:24
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