As an Ontario citizen I…

As an Ontario citizen I cherish and love the province's provincial parks. Provincial parks should be for the use of everyone and no one small sub-set of the population should be given the privilege to enjoy the park land for their exclusive right. I do not support the lease extension. Rondeau's management plan indicated that the Rondeau leases should not be extended following their expiry, however here we are. I understand there is a history of cottagers in Rondeau but it is time to end this private use of our public parks. Not everyone has the opportunity to have a lease so why perpetuate leases of the wealthy few? Some of the leaseholder are not even Canadian citizens, they are international citizens that vacation here. I do not support the continuation of cottagers in Rondeau, I do not support the continuation of cottagers in Algonquin and I do not support giving perpetual lease extensions. It is time to kick the cottagers out of our provincial parks and removal all infrastructure from the park land and rehabilitate it. Humans have enough land outside the park. Habitat for valuable and at risk species is shrinking across this country. Reclaim some of the developed lease land and restore it and give it back to native flora and fauna, within park that will protected into perpetuity.

The Doug Ford government changed the funding structure of Ontario Parks, so that Ontario Parks no longer receives provincial funding and must run entirely on the revenue they receive from operations including lease fees. So I understand this is a revenue stream for Ontario Parks. Historically the Rondeau lease fees have been too low, remaining the same decades. Raising lease fees to match current day value is not good enough to justify continuing the lease program. Remove the cottagers from Rondeau! If the cottagers are upset, that is on them. The leases always had an expiry date. The policy intention of not extending the lease was in the Rondeau management plan for years. This government has to stop making decision based on a few loud people. The general public does not want cottagers in their provincial parks. The Indigenous communities with treaty rights at Rondeau do not want the cottage leases to continue - they want them out!

I do not support the leases in Rondeau. I do not support Rondeau's lease extension. I do not support the cottagers remaining in Rondeau (or Algonquin for that matter). I am against extending the cottage leases in Rondeau Provincial Park.