It’s an idea worth considering.
Lake Cowichan’s town council is going to discuss the idea of charging a nominal fee for each tube sold or rented in the town.
The idea is to create a fund that will allow them to keep up and improve the infrastructure used by tubers and other river users.
Every season thousands of people flood into Lake Cowichan with the intention of putting their flotation devices in the water, often inner tubes, many of them rented from local businesses, for a nice float down the Cowichan River.
It’s a summer tradition for many.
Getting into your swimsuit and heading out to the cool touch of the river. Dipping in the first toe with a wince as the water seems particularly cold against your sun-heated skin. Then either ripping off the bandaid by splashing in quickly or wading slowly in deep enough to float your tube. Then it’s all aboard, with the cool river kissing your hands, feet and back, while the sun bakes your upturned face. Maybe it’s also laughing with friends and family as the current takes you down with little effort on your part.
We don’t think the intention of the proposal is to try to stem the tide of tubers and nix the fun. Council no doubt realizes how important these folks are to the local economy, and not just the tube businesses themselves.
Many of the visitors will avail themselves of the chance to buy food or drinks, or even look at things like t-shirts, sunscreen and sunglasses. It would be madness to discourage this thriving industry.
But the public infrastructure these folks use takes a beating, just by dint of the number of users.
Keeping it up to a reasonable standard is key to maintaining the industry with all its benefits. The move to recover some of the costs of doing so isn’t unreasonable — it’s even prudent.
It will be vital to make sure that the numbers are small, however.
The added cost must be low in order not to shock or discourage either the business owners or the tubers themselves.
We’ve heard numbers being bandied about in the 50 cent range.
We think at that kind of rate most won’t even notice, and it helps to improve the sustainability of this excellent summer draw.