LaSalle Park Community Marina and public boat launch opening May 1

By Staff

April 29^th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

A sure sign that the seasons have changed.

The LaSalle Park Community Marina and public boat launch opened on May 1.

Boats will be going into the water on the 2nd.

The Marina is also home to the Burlington Sailing and Boating Club and the Burlington Able Sail program.

Through an agreement with the City, the Marina has been operated by the LaSalle Park Marina Association (LPMA) for 43 years.

The City owns the wave break and the Marina.

Another boat hoisted out of the yard in 2012 and into the water as the LaSalle Park Marina opens for another season.

That came about when Mayor Meed Ward proposed that the city pay for the construction of a wave break without which the marina could not operate.

Mayor Meed Ward at the time was the city representative on Burlington Hydro.  That organization is understood to have paid the fees for the training Meed Ward received at the DeGroote campus of McMaster University, that resulted in her having the Chartered Director designation (CDir) behind her name.

The City used $4 million taken from the Hydro Reserve fund to pay for a wave break at the LaSalle Marina. The decision was so egregious that City Manager Tim Commisso said aloud at the time that he would begin looking for ways to group the Reserve funds so that it wasn’t so evident just how much money was kept for extreme situations.

The LaSalle Park Community Association got caught up in the mess pays for the use of the Marina owned by the city.

The Marina is a beautiful location for residents and tourists to launch their boats and enjoy the crisp, cold waters of Lake Ontario and Burlington’s lakefront views. The Marina has 219 serviced docking spaces and is protected by a new floating wave break that was installed in 2020.

The LaSalle Park Marina

The Burlington Sailing and Boating Club and the Burlington Able Sail program offer sailing programs at the Marina. In addition, the City has a public boat launch at the Marina that is protected by the floating wave break.

Lorn Newton, President of LaSalle Park Marina Association said the marina has accommodations for power and sail craft as well as smaller day-use boats on un-serviced docks.