Because it celebrates turning 50, Wasaga Seaside is proposing a re-set and re-alignment with the Province for the subsequent 50 years that can assist the City turn into a whole neighborhood and year-round tourism vacation spot
“The City of Wasaga Seaside believes there’s a higher approach to handle the distinctive points of the world’s longest freshwater seaside and Nancy Island historic web site – to guard and promote these property and unlock larger worth for the City, our full-time residents, and the Province. Wasaga Seaside and Nancy Island are distinctive on this planet – they don’t belong below the Provincial Parks Act, which is one measurement suits all – they belong below a ministry with the experience and funding envelope to collaboratively oversee and encourage the event of world-class sights and locations. It will assist the City of Wasaga Seaside ship on Provincial priorities and obtain our objectives of changing into a whole neighborhood, and a world-class, year-round Ontario vacation spot.” – Mayor Brian Smith
WASAGA BEACH, ON, Aug. 27, 2024 /CNW/ – Because it prepares to welcome Canadian rock legend Tom Cochrane and over 15,000 residents and guests to its annual, beachfront Recollections of Summer season live performance on September 1, the City of Wasaga Seaside is asking on the Province to take motion to maneuver the World’s Longest Freshwater Seaside and Nancy Island historic web site out of the Ontario Ministry of the Surroundings, Conservation and Parks (MECP) and into the portfolio of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Tradition and Gaming (MTCG).
The solar goes down at Wasaga Seaside throughout the City’s annual halfway. (CNW Group/City of Wasaga Seaside)
City of Wasaga Seaside’s iconic rainbow colored WASAGA signal at Seaside Space 1. (CNW Group/City of Wasaga Seaside)
City of Wasaga Seaside Calls For Provincial Job Power to Place the Longest Freshwater Seaside within the World and Nancy Island Historic Web site Underneath the Oversight of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism (CNW Group/City of Wasaga Seaside)
Final week, Mayor Brian Smith launched the movement, which outlines the chance for the Province and City to come back collectively to assessment two of the three pillars and guiding ideas below which the world’s longest freshwater seaside was initially expropriated and become a Provincial Park: To offer outside recreation alternatives for the individuals of Ontario, along with year-round tourism and financial alternatives for the City of Wasaga Seaside.
Highlights from the City’s movement embrace a reference to the unique Park Administration Plan (the ‘Plan’) for Wasaga Seaside Provincial Park that was established on June, 1978, which states the Province’s focus is to take care of and additional develop the seaside for leisure alternatives, and assist year-round tourism and financial improvement inside the City of Wasaga Seaside:
“To broaden the seasons of use of the Wasaga Seaside neighborhood altering the “peak weekends in summer time” to a year-round recreation neighborhood.”
The unique Plan commits the Province to revisit the Park Administration Plan each 5 years to make sure that the imaginative and prescient of the municipality and the working practices of the province stay in sync.
Now, because the City celebrates its fiftieth anniversary and prepares to get shovels within the floor on its Downtown Redevelopment Grasp Plan, which can rework the City’s downtown and business beachfront space, it’s proposing a re-set and re-alignment with the Province for the subsequent 50 years that can assist the City turn into a whole neighborhood and world-class, year-round tourism vacation spot.
The City estimates that thousands and thousands of {dollars} of fully-serviced, provincially-owned parcels of land have been sitting vacant and underutilized, not contributing something to the provincial or municipal tax base for over fifty years.
Provincial Job Power
The movement requires a provincial job power to be instantly struck with representatives from the City of Wasaga Seaside, The Ministry of the Surroundings, Conservation and Parks (MECP), The Ministry of Tourism, Tradition and Gaming (MTCG) and the Ministry of Infrastructure (Infrastructure Ontario) to assessment all provincial landholdings inside Wasaga Seaside and decide which lands needs to be transferred out of the MECP portfolio and put into both the MTCG, IO or the City’s portfolios earlier than the tip of March, 2025.
In or earlier than the subsequent Provincial Price range, the City is requesting at a minimal, that Nancy Island, Seaside Areas 1 and a pair of, a portion of Seaside Space 4, and all the remaining non-Seaside Space and non-environmentally delicate parcels of land be transferred out of the MECP portfolio.
Council accredited the movement unanimously.
This comes on the heels of Mayor Brian Smith assembly with Premier Doug Ford on the 2024 Affiliation of Ontario Municipalities (AMO) Convention final week, the place he spoke in regards to the challenges going through the City and the chance for the City and Province to work collectively to unlock larger worth from the longest freshwater seaside on this planet and Nancy Island historic web site, together with year-round jobs, leisure alternatives and regenerative tourism.
Council and senior workers joined greater than 2,500 individuals from throughout the province on the AMO convention, which was held in Ottawa, from August 19-21. The Mayor, members of Council and senior workers attended seven conferences over two days. Conferences included:
Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario
Kinga Surma, Ontario Minister of Infrastructure
Stan Cho, Ontario Minister of Tourism
Neil Lumsden, Ontario Minister of Sport
Paul Calandra, Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing
Pragmeet Sarkaria, Ontario Minister of Transportation
Fast Details
Inside a thirty-minute drive of Wasaga Seaside, there are two world-class historic websites with year-round enchantment, overseen by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Tradition and Gaming: Saint-Marie among the many Hurons and Discovery Harbour. Like Nancy Island in Wasaga Seaside, Discovery Harbour in Penetanguishene has hyperlinks to the Warfare of 1812.
Different pure wonders of the world, like Niagara Falls, are overseen by Parks Commissions, that are overseen by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Tradition and Gaming.
Wasaga Seaside Provincial Park is a 1844.3 hectare leisure class provincial park situated absolutely inside the City of Wasaga Seaside. It was established in 1959 by means of expropriation and is regulated below the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act.
The Park Administration Plan for Wasaga Seaside Provincial Park acknowledges that Wasaga Seaside Provincial Park is exclusive on account of it being the primary city provincial park in Ontario, situated fully inside the boundary of the City of Wasaga Seaside.
$1 million: The quantity the Ministry of the Surroundings, Conservation and Parks has invested, since 2017, in Wasaga Seaside Provincial Park, which continues to be essentially the most extremely visited provincial park in Ontario (a “recreation class” park with virtually two million guests in 2023).
$70 million: The quantity the Ministry of the Surroundings, Conservation and Parks has dedicated to speculate, within the 2024 Price range, to create a brand new city provincial park in Uxbridge and switch Bigwind Lake Provincial Park right into a year-round working park (presently an “environmental class”, non-operating park with no visitation numbers).
Further Sources
Learn the City’s Tourism Vacation spot Administration Plan.
Background
The City of Wasaga Seaside goals to be a spot the place individuals come to create recollections that can final a lifetime. Attending the 2024 AMO Convention and fascinating in advocacy with different ranges of presidency helps Council’s priorities: to create alternatives to diversify the economic system, create jobs and construct a whole neighborhood. It is a part of the City’s plan to grow to be a pacesetter in sustainability, creativity, innovation and enjoyable – a spot with thriving companies and protected, inclusive and full neighbourhoods the place we rejoice our wealthy historical past, range of cultures and pure magnificence, together with the Nottawasaga River, Georgian Bay and the longest freshwater seaside on this planet.
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SOURCE City of Wasaga Seaside
For extra details about the City of Wasaga Seaside’s participation at AMO contact: Sandra Watts, Director of Communications and Intergovernmental Affairs, [email protected]
