Canada’s oldest weekly newspaper
© 2025 The Picton Gazette
Since 1830
PEC Harbour & Marina slips.
CJ and Megan Thompson of Tenacity Marina have filed a Statement of Defence in response to the County’s suit against them. Their Counterclaim seeks $2 million in damages.
A new suit, detailing the County’s attempt to take over Tenacity’s 70 new boat slips at 35 Bridge Street, now owned by 867 Canada Inc., claims a further $3 million in damages.
The crux of the Thompsons’ defense is their claim that the County misinterpreted its Beach Lease agreement with the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR).
The terms of the Beach Lease are at the center of the dispute.
Submerged lands in navigable waterways, including Lake Ontario, are owned by the Crown for the benefit of the public. MNR downloads them to municipalities via Beach Lease Agreements.
In 2012, the County and MNR entered into a Beach Agreement that authorized PEC to manage both existing and new leases of its Crown lands, including in Picton Harbour.
A key term of the Beach Agreement is that the municipality must remit to MNR 10 percent of any revenues generated by its subleasing of Crown lands.
In 2020, the County entered into a sublease agreement with Mr. Thompson that included the municipal Marina, and water lots 1 and 2 of the submerged Crown lands in Picton Harbour.
Water lots 1 and 2 front 35 Bridge Street, a privately owned building, and 1 Head Street, the Picton Marina.
The sublease agreement stipulated rent of $1.00 per year, and, crucially, the revenues due to MNR per the terms of the County’s Beach Lease.
The Thompsons’ lawyer, Mark Pedersen of Belleville’s O’Flynn Weese LLP, says that demand is “incoherent.”
He reads the Beach Lease as saying the County must remit 10 percent of the revenues it earns from its sublease agreements. In other words, from rents. The Beach Lease says nothing about tenants remitting 10 percent of gross revenues.
He also notes that the County owns the land on which the Picton Marina sits. That means it is not subject to the terms of the Beach lease as it is not Crown land. The County, however, notes that it does not own the Marina’s water lot.
The Beach Lease: key clauses
8. The [municipality] shall file with the Minister on or before the 31st day of March in each year an annual report of its progress, including an itemized list of all receipts and expenditures.
9. (i) The [municipality] agrees to pay to the Minister of Finance on or before the 31st day of March in each year a sum equal to 10 percent of the gross revenue shown in [that report].
The County claims the Beach Lease stipulates that any business with a sublease agreement to operate on a water lot must remit 10 percent of their annual gross business revenues to the County to send on to MNR.
But the other businesses on Picton Harbour, the Picton Harbour Inn and the Prince Edward Yacht Club, do not remit 10 percent of their revenues to the County to send on to MNR. They don’t remit any revenues at all.
Ryan Crate of Crate Marine in Belleville, however, says he’s never been asked to remit 10 percent of his business revenues. He noted that Crate Marine now owns the land and water lot it used to lease from the City of Belleville. It acquired the land about 13 years ago, and the water lot eight years later.
But he added that Crate Marine had never been asked to remit any business revenue as part of a lease agreement with the City. It paid rent.
When asked for clarification, Ministry of Natural Resources spokesperson Mike Fenn said he could not explain what MNR’s Beach Leases mean, saying, “as the matter is before the courts, the Ministry cannot comment at this time.”
In late 2024, the County abruptly cancelled the Thompson’s sublease agreement to operate the Picton Marina, and evicted them from water lots 1 and 2, saying they had failed to remit four years’ worth of revenues from both the Picton Marina operation and their private company, PEC Harbour & Marina, which operates the 70 new boat slips Tenacity Marina built on water lot 1. The lawsuit claims vacant possession, and stipulates that any chattels left behind after eviction, including the 70 boat slips, are now forfeit.
While managing the Picton Marina, Tenacity says it invested $1.5 million in new dock infrastructure between 2021-24.
CJ Thompson detailed a multi-year plan to enhance the Picton harbour by building a new boardwalk and 70 new boat slips as part of his successful bid to manage the municipal Marina in 2020.
The new infrastructure, and related remediation of the harbour bed, was approved by the municipality, which also partnered with Tenacity to build a public boardwalk giving access to the harbour, the Picton Marina, and the new slips.
The Thompsons say water lot 1 historically belongs to 35 Bridge Street and is private property. They say it should never have been included in the sublease agreement Mr. Thompson signed when he took over the Picton Marina.
But the County says that a 2014 letter from then CEO James Hepburn to Conrad Guziewicz, then the building’s owner, assigning rights to Water Lot 1 — the former Tip of the Bay Marina — to 35 Bridge Street is not valid.
867 Canada Inc. owns Tenacity. It also owns 35 Bridge Street, and, it says, water lot 1. In August 2025, it purchased the 70 new boat slips for $3.5 million.
867 is now suing the County for a further $3,000,000 in general, specific, aggravated and punitive damages, claiming it has infringed its rights as a riparian, or waterway, owner.
This lawsuit also contests the County’s interpretation of the Beach Agreement for water lot 1, the water lot assigned to 35 Bridge Street.
“The Private Marina is riparian, in that it fronts on a navigable waterway. As such, it benefits from the usual property rights incidental to riparian lands, including the right to make use of the water upon which the riparian property fronts.
“867 Inc. does not require the permission of the Crown, nor of PEC, to install and keep installed its docks.” The company “is entitled to its docks, as they are, as an incident of its riparian ownership, like any and all other riparian owners.”
This suit states that the only fee that 867 Inc. is obliged to pay comes under the Fees and Charges By-law, which authorizes a fee for “docks placed in Picton Harbour for private or commercial use,” at an annual rate of $150.00 plus $1.25/lineal foot of dock.
But that fee has never been charged.
“They have ignored their own by-law and failed to enforce it,” notes Megan Thompson, “while at the same time trying to impose something entirely different that contradicts their own legislation.”
The lawsuit alleges the County interfered with the business activities of PEC Harbour & Marina.
The Google listing for “PEC Harbour & Marina” would, normally, provide the telephone number, website link, and physical address for the private marina.
But in spring 2025, the suit alleges, “PEC surreptitiously caused a change of the Google landing page for PEC Harbour & Marina. Not only did it list the Picton Marina’s telephone number, it changed the listed address from 35 Bridge St to 1 Head Street, the Picton Marina’s address, and changed the hours of business to those of the Picton Marina’s hours of business.”
It also redirected the page link from PEC Harbour & Marina to the Picton Marina. The claim alleges, “PEC surreptitiously caused a change of the Google landing page for PEC Harbour & Marina to direct-link to PEC’s website.”
“This resulted in all traffic seeking out PEC Harbour and Marina to be directed to inquire with the Municipality about its marina.”
Further, the suit alleges, Municipal staff informed the boating and broader public that the docks owned and operated by Tenacity were illegally installed, and that the business was operating fraudulently.
The interference “resulted in a precipitous decline in…business, with seasonal and transient boat slip rentals declining to nearly zero.”
See it in the newspaper
