Wilderness Committee condemns the sell-off of parts of Wasaga Seashore Provincial Park TORONTO / TRADITIONAL TERRITORIES OF MISSISSAUGAS OF THE CREDIT, ANISHNAABEG, CHIPPEWA, HAUDENOSAUNEE AND WENDAT — On November 25, the Ford authorities handed Invoice 68, the Plan to Shield Ontario Act (Price range Measures), 2025, quietly legislating the elimination of lands from Wasaga Seashore Provincial Park, together with public entry seashores and important habitat for endangered piping plovers. The Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act, 2006 requires a report and settlement of MPPs earlier than lands totalling greater than 1 per cent of a park space might be eliminated or offered. The passing of this controversial parkland elimination in an omnibus finances invoice circumvents the regulation. “By removing Wasaga Beach Park lands through a sweeping budget bill rather than a stand-alone vote, the Ford government is once again side-stepping the democratic process and public input in order to ram through unpopular public land sell-offs,” mentioned Ontario Campaigner Katie Krelove. Wasaga Seashore is the positioning of the longest freshwater seashore on the planet and hosts as much as two million vacationers a yr. Wasaga Seashore Provincial Park consists of 14 km of sandy shore accessible from eight completely different seashore areas. The land removals pressured via in Invoice 68 comprise roughly half of those seashores, together with Seashore Areas 1 and a couple of, New Wasaga Seashore and Allenwood Seashore. These embody key vital nesting and feeding areas for endangered piping plovers. A map of the area which incorporates the proposed areas for elimination, now handed in in Invoice 68. (Photograph: Authorities of Ontario) “Provincial parks provide immense value to people in Ontario by protecting biodiversity and safeguarding public access to rare natural spaces,” mentioned Krelove. “We know thousands wrote to their local MPPs across the province urging them to vote no to the sell-off of Wasaga Beach parkland — but the Ford government once again found a way to side-step democracy and allow MPPs to avoid being held accountable.” The severance of migratory piping plover habitat from the park, mixed with the elimination of provincial endangered species protections via Invoice 5 in June, means the one authorized safeguard standing in the way in which of their destruction is federal intervention. “The Ford government may not care about the fate of endangered species, but Ontarians do.” added Krelove. “We’ll be holding Canada’s Environment Minister accountable to enforce strong habitat protections for piping plovers through all possible tools in the federal Species At Risk Act.” Obtain extra reporting assets right here, together with an image of the piping plover and a map of the area. –30– For extra data, please contact: Katie Krelove, Ontario Campaigner
647-208-4026, [email protected]
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