For many years, I have…

For many years, I have enjoyed coming to Wasaga Beach to see my cousin in the summer. My visits have always included a trip to Nancy Island to see the nesting piping plovers, and I appreciated the opportunity to learn about these endangered birds from the Birds Canada volunteers, and to see an educational display in the visitors centre and to buy piping plover souvenirs. The proposal to transfer that section of the provincial park to the municipality to promote tourism growth concerns me because I believe that the presence of the piping plovers on a popular beach is very much a part of Wasaga Beach's charm, and if eliminating the natural section of the beach where the piping plovers nest is a part of the plan to increase tourism, it is counterproductive, and I oppose it. Providing habitat to help preserve an endangered species can be a major part of Wasaga Beach's image as an attractive place to visit. Plovers and beachgoers have co-existed there for a long time. More can be made of this relationship to build the image of the town as a summer holiday destination and as a place that cares about balancing concern for nature and the environment with beachgoing. Wasaga Beach should emulate Cape May, New Jersey, where the dunes are protected and treasured, rather than Sauble Beach, where the mayor sends out bulldozers to flatten the piping plovers' nesting area every year.

A town that destroys the habitat of any endangered creature for the sake of making money is not a place I want to spend any of my money in.

To achieve the proper balance, the Ontario Government must ensure that piping plovers are conserved and protected by a science-based management plan and resources that reduces threats to piping plovers and their habitat year-round by restricting mechanical raking so the habitat is not destroyed, prohibiting dune alteration, and protecting nests with fenced buffer zones and natural predator mitigations. Educational signs and a viewing area with view magnifiers would help visitors to see the birds as they go about hatch and raise their young.

The management plan should also commit funding to protect, conserve, and steward piping plovers, their nests, and their habitats, and engage experts like Birds Canada at development and implementation phases.

Thank you.