Save Sawlog Point: Keep the Retained Lands Public
The Issue
The Issue:
In 2025, the Township of Tiny acquired the Sawlog Point shoreline property specifically to protect public waterfront access. A zoning application now before Council would convert roughly 42% of that land into 5 private residential lots — and on August 5, 2026, Council already voted to designate the remaining "Retained Lands" for future development, not permanent park space.
This land is a Great Lakes Coastal Meadow Marsh — a wetland type so rare it's found nowhere else on Earth outside Great Lakes shorelines, and one Ontario only began formally tracking in 2025. The Township's own Environmental Impact Study documents 7 Species-at-Risk bats and a Threatened snake species on this exact property, plus two more Threatened species (Eastern Foxsnake, Eastern Massasauga) with real, documented habitat use — species that receive zero legal protection only because a provincial law change last year narrowed the legal definition of "habitat." The ecology didn't change. The law did.
The study concludes the development won't harm local bat populations only because the surrounding forest — including the Retained Lands — stays intact. Approving development on the Retained Lands later would undo the very finding Council is relying on today.
Survey work behind these conclusions was thin in places that matter: a single amphibian survey, no actual bat detection surveys, and no independent government sign-off exists anymore for developments like this one.
We, the undersigned, ask Tiny Township Council to:
- Reverse the August 5 direction and redesignate the Retained Lands as permanent Open Space
- Commission a full, current wetland evaluation — not reliance on outdated maps — before any further step
- Fund this through conservation easement and land trust partnerships (as neighbouring Georgian Bay Township has already done, at no cost to its taxpayers) rather than through the sale of public land
- Establish a clear, permanent boundary between any private lots and the remaining public land
- This is one of the last stretches of shoreline in the area where the whole community can gather freely, and it may be one of the rarest habitat types left in Ontario. Once it's gone, it doesn't come back.
No Donation required**
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The Issue
The Issue:
In 2025, the Township of Tiny acquired the Sawlog Point shoreline property specifically to protect public waterfront access. A zoning application now before Council would convert roughly 42% of that land into 5 private residential lots — and on August 5, 2026, Council already voted to designate the remaining "Retained Lands" for future development, not permanent park space.
This land is a Great Lakes Coastal Meadow Marsh — a wetland type so rare it's found nowhere else on Earth outside Great Lakes shorelines, and one Ontario only began formally tracking in 2025. The Township's own Environmental Impact Study documents 7 Species-at-Risk bats and a Threatened snake species on this exact property, plus two more Threatened species (Eastern Foxsnake, Eastern Massasauga) with real, documented habitat use — species that receive zero legal protection only because a provincial law change last year narrowed the legal definition of "habitat." The ecology didn't change. The law did.
The study concludes the development won't harm local bat populations only because the surrounding forest — including the Retained Lands — stays intact. Approving development on the Retained Lands later would undo the very finding Council is relying on today.
Survey work behind these conclusions was thin in places that matter: a single amphibian survey, no actual bat detection surveys, and no independent government sign-off exists anymore for developments like this one.
We, the undersigned, ask Tiny Township Council to:
- Reverse the August 5 direction and redesignate the Retained Lands as permanent Open Space
- Commission a full, current wetland evaluation — not reliance on outdated maps — before any further step
- Fund this through conservation easement and land trust partnerships (as neighbouring Georgian Bay Township has already done, at no cost to its taxpayers) rather than through the sale of public land
- Establish a clear, permanent boundary between any private lots and the remaining public land
- This is one of the last stretches of shoreline in the area where the whole community can gather freely, and it may be one of the rarest habitat types left in Ontario. Once it's gone, it doesn't come back.
No Donation required**
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on September 18, 2026