This is my personal comment…

This is my personal comment Copied from the Statement from the Wasaga Beach Climate Action Team on the Proposed Transfer of Crown-Owned Lands within Beach Areas 1, 2, New Wasaga, and Allenwood Beach to the Town of Wasaga Beach
August 8 2025
The Wasaga Beach Climate Action Team (WBCAT) appreciates the statement made by Mayor Smith on July 30, 2025—particularly his assurances that the land would not go to developers, that there are no plans to build on it, that environmentally sensitive dune areas will be preserved, and that no sensitive habitats are under threat.
These are encouraging commitments from the Mayor. However, until they are formally incorporated into the Destination Wasaga Master Plan, there is no guarantee they will be upheld. Future mayors and councils could easily alter or disregard these promises.
For this reason, we recommend that the Destination Wasaga Master Plan be completed and adopted before any transfer of park land occurs. Until such safeguards are in place and for the following reasons, WBCAT is opposed to the proposed transfer of Crown-Owned Lands within Beach Areas 1, 2, New Wasaga, and Allenwood Beach to the Town of Wasaga Beach
The park’s ecological integrity depends on the specialized stewardship of Ontario Parks staff — expertise no municipal body can replicate. The freshwater dunes, held together by globally imperiled marram grass, require careful, science-based management. Likewise, Beach Areas 1, New Wasaga, and Allenwood provide critical nesting habitat for the endangered piping plover. Since their return in 2008, these birds have coexisted with tourism only because of active protection and monitoring by Ontario Parks. The current proposal would strip protection from nearly all their nesting areas.
Independent experts agree: the Town of Wasaga Beach lacks the capacity and specialized knowledge needed to safeguard these fragile ecosystems while supporting intensive recreational use. As Ontario Nature and others have emphasized, every stretch of beachfront within the park — from Beach Area 1 to Allenwood — is part of a rare and ecologically significant ecosystem that benefits all Ontarians, including those who may never visit in person.
Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, like all Ontario parks and conservation reserves, belongs equally to all Ontarians. These lands are held in trust for the public and must never be sold to developers or transferred to local control. In a time of escalating climate impacts, it is more urgent than ever to protect these sensitive areas, not dismantle their protections.
This will mark the first time that a piece of Ontario Parks land will be transferred to a municipality. Such a move sets a dangerous precedent. They are proposing changes to the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act, 2006 (PPCRA), which could open the door for other parks to face the same fate.
We therefore call on the Government of Ontario to maintain full provincial park protection for every inch of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park. These lands must remain publicly owned, ecologically protected, and provincially managed — for the benefit of current and future generations.
If the land transfer is ultimately approved and proceeds, we will encourage the Town to ensure that the strong environmental protections Ontario Parks has upheld for the past 70 years are maintained and strengthened. We will ask the Town to enshrine beach and dune protections in the Official Plan and the
Destination Wasaga Master Plan, to zone the affected parcels as “Environment Protected (EP)” in the Zoning Bylaw, and to confirm that the Point in Beach Area 1 remains designated and legally protected as a provincially significant earth science Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI).
https://wasagabeachclimateaction.