This plan should not go…

This plan should not go through. All our provincial parks, in their protected and conserved state, already attract tourists. Wasaga in particular is the most popular provincial park in Ontario. Keeping natural lands and parks safe and protected is attractive to tourists to Canada, a nation renowned for its diverse and beautiful nature.

Additionally, the provincial parks are vital to our ecosystem and our cultural identity. Canada’s parks serve crucial functions for our wildlife, which with continued human disruption and escalating global warming, is under constant threat. The piping plover, whose habitat is in Wasaga and who is already endangered, will be at serious risk if these plans move forward.

The parks serve as historical monuments to Canada’s great natural heritage. These lands have been the life force for wildlife for millions of years and continue to be vital for both them and us.

As a result of signing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Canada has a goal of ensuring 30% of all its lands and waters are under some environmental protection by 2030. However, we are less than halfway to meeting this goal, with only 5 years left. Thus, the provincial parks parks, which are already protected under the conservation act, should remain as such: maintained, protected, and conserved.