This is a general comment on…

This is a general comment on expanding protected areas (Provincial Parks) in Ontario (not site-specific).

Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on an important issue directly affecting the future health of the province of Ontario: its land, wildlife, natural environment, rivers, lakes and especially and particularly its people.

Amending the boundaries of protected lands to expand territory is a signal win for the people of Ontario who have to date, become used to myriad processes that tend to produce the opposite. The loss of wetlands, of 'pioneer' orchard and old growth forested lands, of farmland, of now concrete-buried, archaeological learning opportunities, of re-routed or outright destroyed natural spillways and watersheds or even government mis-prioritization of monetarily 'high value' waterfront property to serve foreign, specialty luxe business interest over local access/appreciation for what remains of natural shoreline, has become our expectation; this is how we view and use our natural environment.

Compare any motorized lake in cottage country with one where only non-motorized transport is allowed. See the difficulties maintaining man-made (as opposed to working to conserve natural, in situ) lakes, where algae blooms get attention because they threaten vacation property. Even our Great Lakes require warning flags to speak their health on any given day for nature seekers. The difference in approach to our natural environments from the former, to expanding Provincial Parks so that a wide breadth of existing bio-systems can be conserved, is telling. Plans to expand Ontario Provincial Parks are a critical next step in correcting where we may have gone wrong before.

The proposals here are good news. This is especially true given that plans consider shortfalls caused by the removal of currently protected land, with the addition of larger parcels. In line with conservation is the requirement that no-hunting zones remain so, and that future protected property or park expansions maintain same. Even in suburbia, gardeners are having to turn to natural species for planting; it is essential that we protect the places where such still grow.

The importance of proposals to expand Ontario Provincials Parks lies in the vision that Northern Ontario and parts surrounding, need not look like nor follow the example of provincial neighbors to the South who have clearly struggled (albeit with significantly larger populations) at municipal and provincial levels to honor, maintain - now find - land as it was once curated by Indigenous for whom protection of the natural environment was inherent and less in need of authority proposal.

Thank you for these offerings and this important work.