While the Town of Wasaga…

While the Town of Wasaga Beach’s desire to boost tourism is understandable, proposing legislative amendments to the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act and Historical Parks Act to enable development on protected land is a dangerous precedent. These acts exist to preserve Ontario’s natural and cultural heritage — not to be rewritten at the convenience of short-term economic interests.

This isn’t the first time the Ford government has attempted to sidestep environmental protections. From the Greenbelt land swap scandal to repeated efforts to undermine conservation planning, there’s a clear pattern: legislation meant to safeguard public land is treated as flexible, despite long-standing public opposition and environmental warnings.

Protected areas are meant to be just that — protected. Weakening these laws opens the floodgates for further erosion of public trust and environmental integrity. Development must work around these protections, not erase them to make way for tourism infrastructure. Once we pave over natural spaces, we don’t get them back.