Rick Henderson is chairperson of the Portage and District Boat Launch Group that's been trying to get some commitment from the federal or provincial governments to help develop the channel at Delta Beach.

He explains it's for safety purposes and shares how their recent virtual meeting fared.

"After we had our virtual meeting where we had lots of support locally and everything else, we never did get a commitment from either government," says Henderson. "So, we're just sort of looking at trying to get them to still come on board. And that was one of our things that we really wanted to get in place before we went on with building the marina. What we need is a solution that is sustainable, so that we can work at getting this other marina built so it'll all work together. We're 99 per cent sure on having an extension of our grants that have been approved going through. But it's just not 100 per cent. Our group will be committed then to carry on with resuming the project in 2022. And that way, we can work with maybe getting some of the work from the governments to perhaps get a solution to this outer channel, and we can go on from there."

Henderson says the biggest issue for this resolution, especially this year with lower lake levels expected due to minimal amounts of moisture, is getting out into the lake if there has to be a rescue. He notes it's going to be even harder to get out now, seeing as no maintenance or any work has been done for rescue operations since last year.

"It will be something to see this year if we can get out there with a boat," continues Henderson. "We've always said that about the safety issue -- it's trying to get on the Lake. If somebody needs to be rescued, we're 20 minutes from Portage, and there's nothing at St. Ambroise for a boat launch any more. And the closest one is at Lynch's Point, and that's pretty far away from rescuing somebody out here, especially for the campground. Everybody gets out there, and you get those strong south winds in summertime. Then they get out there past that tree line on their floatation devices and need to be rescued."

le on board now, too, with whom we're trying to do some different things here to get governments to come on board, or somebody else," adds Henderson. "We're trying to address that outer channel thing. It's not going to be a really big thing to deal with all the time, if it was just maintained. It all depends on the water levels and how many north winds and shifting of sand you get. Once that's looked after, then we can go ahead with the marina."

He adds they're planning the effort to be split up into three phases with the marina part, a parking lot near to where one currently is located, and then an actual roundabout where boat trailers can be driven and given giving access to a new boat launch. Henderson adds this would remove much traffic from the current boat launch.

Henderson explains their virtual meeting garnered some great response with people, noting this should have been done years ago had a group like their current one been formed back then.

For the time being, Henderson says he's been marking where the current channel is, to allow for somewhat of a form of navigation until something more proper is developed there. He says they're currently in fish spawning seasons now, disallowing any dredging, and giving them time to get the word out and make further plans.

Closeup view of proposed marina plans: