I'm writing to you as a life…

I'm writing to you as a life-long user of Rondeau Provincial Park, the granddaughter of the owner of a cottage, and someone who returns from the Greater Toronto Area to Chatham-Kent regularly specifically to use our family's cottage at Rondeau. It is small, we are quiet, there are no extensive gardens or lawn. My family believes deeply in conservation and preservation of the natural world.

We also believe that you should know where you came from. Rondeau was, and always has been, a camping ground, a place people go to play; where my grandparents met, in fact. It is a weekend destination for people in Chatham-Kent, not just nature enthusiasts, just regular people who want to be outside, ride a bike safely on quiet streets, lounge on a gentle, shallow beach with their kids. I love the hiking and canoeing of the backcountry lakes and trails of northern Ontario, but Rondeau hasn't been, and never was, that.

My understanding is that the legislative authority exists already for cottages to remain in the park until 2038.

I also understand that on three different occasions, Ministers responsible for provincial parks committed to the sale of Rondeau to the municipality who would, in turn, sell the land to cottagers. As a provincial bureaucrat, I know how vexing this can be. I also know that I am obligated to follow through on public commitments made by elected officials.... but that commitment was made in 2019, a previous government.

I also understand that Rondeau is home to species at risk. I believe that these two things can coexist, as they have until now, and I wouldn't expect the sale of land to cottagers to change how people see their role of coexisting and caring for their natural environment.

Further, precedent already exists in the province, with the sale of cottage lots to cottagers in Kawartha Lakes as well as Sandbanks Provincial Parks.

I ask you to please get on with it, make the decision, save everyone the time and effort, and my grandma the tears. Extend leases for another two years to finalize the approach to the sale of the cottage lots to the municipality.

Thank you.