Like most of the local lakes, Lake Massawippi's various municipalities require people using the lake to purchase an annual sticker to attach to one's boat. The rationale for this, clearly stated on the sticker, is to pay for the fight against a possible invasion of the dreaded invasive zebra mussel. I gather the dreadful colours of the stickers somehow scare away the mussel spawn... The cost of the sticker gradually rose to $25 for the first boat and $10 for additional ones. I have always bought my sticker under protest claiming it was a tax grab by the municipalities who used poor science in their fight against the zebra, not to mention their slack approach to washing and checking incoming boats at launch sites. Motors and bait wells are never rinsed out and so on. Aircraft from all over the place freely land on the lake, carrying the mussel spawn from place to place. Of course they never get checked...
Yesterday I drudged down to buy my stickers and got a little surprise. The price had changed! Now people using non-powered boats only pay $5. Well, I applaud the price drop - anything to encourage non-motorized boating - but it does prove my point that the stickers are a tax. With the cost of checking boats for spawn rising, how could the sticker price drop? My mussel tax sticker is now on my kayak, but I wonder if I have blundered by putting them on the back deck. Will the mussels die of fright if they can't see the stickers? Perhaps I should practice rolling more often. That will scare the little buggers!
1 comment:
It's not really a tax, it is a user fee. Now, don't you just feel warm and fuzzy all over? :)
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