Lands set aside as…

Lands set aside as Provincial Parks are precious and scarce publicly owned natural resources. They are essentially non-renewable resources - once gone they are gone forever. The proposed amendments pose a grave threat to not only Wasaga Beach Provincial Park but to all provincial parks throughout Ontario. This really feels like the thin edge of the wedge. The proposal to remove portions of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming (MTCG) for the purposes of economic development sounds like a convenient, thinly veiled scheme to facilitate sale of this precious park land to private developers for commercial gain. This is an outrageous betrayal of the Ontario public's trust and a serious offence to an environmentally sensitive area, hitherto protected from development for the benefit of humans, plants & animals. Wasaga Beach Provincial Park is one of the last remaining nesting grounds for the endangered Piping Plover in Ontario. These tiny shorebirds have made a fragile comeback since 2007, thanks to years of careful stewardship and protection. This proposal will surely threaten the comeback of the Piping Plover.

Should this proposal move forward what's to stop application of the legislation to other provincial parks? Or the quick passage of similar amendments to sell off more public park land across Ontario to private interests?

In this time of grave environmental crises we need to restrict sprawl and instead increase the densification of existing urban areas and town centres to preserve more land as parks, forests, wetlands.

This legislation is a terrible example of sacrificing the greater public good to enrich a handful of private commercial interests. Give your heads a shake and just stop it!