What’s happening at Wasaga…

What’s happening at Wasaga Beach isn’t just another local planning fight. To push this development through, Ontario plans to amend the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act — a law that was designed to keep our parks safe from precisely this kind of commercial land grab.

If Ontario can chop up Wasaga Beach Provincial Park for roads, real estate, and tourism, what stops it from paving over other protected areas when the next big business plan arrives? This is no small loophole — it’s a wrecking ball aimed at the very idea of public, protected land. It sets a dangerous precedent: our parks are no longer guaranteed safe havens for nature.

After the devastating fire that destroyed most of Wasaga Beach's iconic entertainment area, it could be supposed that the Municipality approached the Province for a loan to rebuild and this very destructive plan is the result.

We can see the result of the Toronto Therme project and the controversy that continues to surround it and the so-called Science Centre rebuild.

This Provincial government has shown itself to be tone deaf to the true needs of its constituents and the real necessity of keeping our Provincial parks green, of shoring up our water sources and allowing public discussion as to what will happen to our natural resources in their entirety.

This preoccupation with development at any cost must stop.

This should not happen in any Provincial Park, not now, not ever.