I oppose this move to…

I oppose this move to transfer provincial parkland to the Town and Wasaga Beach for a number of reasons. First, this may set a precedent for the future severing and selling off of provincial parkland to municipalities or companies for development. In a time when Canada and most provinces have increased goals for environmentally protected lands and habitats, this does the opposite! Second, Municipalities do not have the expertise to protect environmentally sensitive areas and their mandate is quite the opposite as they are on a rampage right now of approving development applications with disregard for forests, dunes and wetlands. Third, The dunes and sand beaches in Wasaga beach are rare and have already been significantly damaged with shorelines hardened and much habitat destroyed. The small portions that are left must be protected and current building codes and by-laws do not seem to do this! There is crown land in very large area in the land transfer that has been naturalized with significant trees and rehabilitated dunes and the mayor and council have specifically indicated in previous town halls that they want to develop them. The amount of beach raking that the town requires Ontario Parks to do already violates guidelines for ecological maintenance of our relic beach land and without the Ministry of the environment and parks overseeing these beach/dune lands, I fear this will get worse.
Forth, Premier Ford's recently passed Bill 5 tears down the endangered species act. Up until now, Ontario parks have been overseeing protection of the Piping Plover whose habitat has shrinking and other shorebirds. This big land transfer puts this endangered species in the hands of the Town who once again do not have the ecological background nor the track record to show they would prioritize their nesting sites over development dollars. This is a massive conflict of interest and it is imperative that this deal not be approved or at least the land area in question greatly reduced as it currently covers about half off all the Wasaga Beach beachfront provincial parkland which is unacceptable!