By Fatima Syed, The Narwhal
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
The Ontario government is pressing on with plans to hand over management of 60 per cent of Wasaga Beach from the province to the town, even after hearing from thousands of Ontarians who are worried that this could harm sensitive piping plover habitats and limit beach access.
The Doug Ford government received 14,233 comments during a 30-day period last summer, with around 98 per cent opposing the move. Many voiced concerns that removing provincial protection might lead to losing sand dunes in favor of hotels, condos, and other beachfront developments.
“We did not consider any changes to the proposal based on the feedback received, given the Town of Wasaga Beach’s commitments to keeping the beach public, not building on the beach and protecting environmentally sensitive dunes,” the government stated in its decision.
According to Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights, any actions that have environmental or energy impacts must be posted on the publicly accessible Environmental Registry of Ontario for feedback from industry experts and residents alike. (However, under Bill 5, the Ford government has exempted several projects from this registry.)
Last June, they announced their decision to modify the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act-the law responsible for creating over 340 parks across Ontario. This amendment would allow for transferring 60 hectares or three per cent of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park-which protects one of the world’s longest freshwater beaches-to town management in an effort to enhance tourism and support local businesses.
This transfer involves more than half-60 per cent-of the beachfront area containing sand dunes and vegetation that serve as nesting grounds for piping plovers.
A small fraction-about two per cent-of respondents backed this plan citing benefits for economic growth but also emphasized “continued environmental management and continued public access.”
The majority of comments highlighted worries about losing this precious beach environment or putting it at risk due to increased development.
“Once this precedent is set, we risk irreversible environmental degradation, reduced public access and commercialization of what should remain a protected public space for generations to come,” one local resident noted. “Tourism and environmental stewardship are not mutually exclusive, and development must not come at the cost of conservation.”
“Public land – especially waterfront property as ecologically and recreationally important as Wasaga Beach – should remain in public hands and under provincial protection,” another added.
Despite these concerns being raised by many residents, none swayed provincial leaders. The amendments facilitating this transfer were included in Ontario’s budget for 2025 released last fall. With this recent decision made by authorities now moving forward with transferring control to town officials.
This isn’t an isolated incident where feedback through Ontario’s Environmental Registry was overlooked by Ford’s administration. The Auditor General has frequently criticized them for failing to follow their own laws requiring genuine consultation with citizens via registry postings.
<p For instance, late last year over 30,000 comments were submitted concerning plans to remove 7,400 acres from protected Greenbelt land but “no changes were made” after those consultations according to a posting from government sources.
The government’s decision mentioned that lands taken out from provincial protection within Wasaga Beach “will continue to be subject” under existing species protections along with environmental legislation in place.
However just before making this transfer announcement came out publicly they weakened certain species protections via controversial Bill 5 while exempting some postings entirely off their environmental registry platform-a significant blow against remaining laws aimed specifically at preserving plover habitats found here within Wasaga Beach.
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