I strongly disagree with the…

I strongly disagree with the proposal to sell key parts of Wasaga Beach, Ontario’s second most-visited Provincial Park (2023 data) for private purposes. The proposed area for sale includes beautiful and fragile Georgian Bay shoreline lands and critical habitat of the piping plover - which is endangered on both the federal Species at Risk Act and the provincial Endangered Species Act. The area also includes sand dunes, which provide important stabilizing functions against high water, wind, and storm evens for nearby lands, significant wetlands and vegetation, These sensitive areas rely on the protections provided by Ontario's Provincial Park to safely safely manage the space and ensure environmental spaces like this can coexist with beachgoers.

I am extremely concerned that the government is targeting the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act (PPCRA) that protects all of Ontario Parks and Conservation Reserves. The PPCRA currently requires that elected MPPs approve any significant removal of provincial park land and it is unacceptable for the provincial government to weaken the process requirements for removing Park or Conservation Reserve lands. If this is approved, this sets a dangerous precedent for the management of all Ontario Parks and Conservation lands. Furthermore, we cannot continue to accept the removal and sale of our valuable, public lands by Doug Ford. Ontario Place has been a lesson enough. We must not let another accessible, beautiful space be removed from the public hands of Ontario's people.

This proposal by Doug Ford and the Ontario government's damaging, illegal proposal to our parks systems is no different than the US Senate Republican's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act." We will not accept this in Ontario or in Canada more broadly. This proposal must be rejected.