Crumbling infrastructure, deteriorating pavement, unkempt grass, vacant commercial locations, and closed washrooms—these have been a growing concern recently for some politicians. For those politicians and civic administrators, this description is used for the state of the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation’s Iroquois Lock viewing area; for many residents of South Dundas, this description could easily describe the varying state of disrepair of municipally-owned property. In fact, there are many areas in South Dundas in need of repair, beginning with the two village plazas.
The sidewalks in the Morrisburg Plaza continue to be a decaying concrete safety disaster and eyesore. Recent work to grind the high spots from the heaving concrete slabs has only exaggerated the situation. Work in 2023 to patch the crater-filled parking lot was only a stop-gap measure that a year later looks worse for wear. Some road markings were recently painted only because drivers were going the wrong way near the grocery store. The rest of the parking lot is a creative parking free-for-all for any drivers who dare to park there. In the centre promenade, the dilapidated clock tower remains unresolved, and a planned public washroom started eight years ago remains unopened.
The Iroquois plaza faces similar issues with parking, along with inadequate barriers protecting pedestrians from the angled parking spaces. The plaza also lacks a public washroom facility. This mirrors the absence of public washrooms in many of the parks in the village.
Across all the villages that make up South Dundas, there is deteriorating asphalt on streets, crumbling or non-existent sidewalks, and overgrown ditches filled with noxious weeds. South Dundas owns property at Iroquois Point adjacent to the SLSMC and Ontario Power Generation lands. These properties are also overgrown with sumacs and generally unkempt. If South Dundas council is going to go down the road of publicly shaming the SLSMC, should not the municipality have its own house in order first?
This issue has also been fodder for local MP Eric Duncan, who has taken to social media with another partisan rallying cry to score political points. That is unwarranted, as the SLSMC receives no federal funding and operates at arm’s length from any federal department. The corporation is self-funding, as per the management agreement that was renewed by then-Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. All maintenance and operations are funded through the tolls and operations of the Seaway. Bellowing on social media for the federal government to fix the problem shows a lack of understanding of who the key players are and how operations are funded.
A very recent look at the Iroquois Locks shows progress already from the SLSMC, with signage replaced, benches repaired, and some weeds cut—progress at least. English poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. South Dundas and federal politicians should put their stones down and get to work.
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