Wasaga Beach Provincial Park Management Plan

Wasaga Beach Provincial Park protects and manages a diverse range of significant natural, cultural and recreational values within an area of intense population growth and urban development.

Wasaga Beach Provincial Park Management Plan

We are developing the Wasaga Beach Provincial Park Management Plan to protect the park's resources and to guide the operation and development of the park over the coming years.

We will use the feedback we receive through formal consultation opportunities to help develop the new plan. These consultation opportunities are outlined below. 

Once finalized, the Wasaga Beach Provincial Park Management Plan will replace the existing 1978 Park Master Plan.

Wasaga Beach Provincial Park

Wasaga Beach Provincial Park is a 1844.3 hectare recreational class provincial park located in southern Georgian Bay. It was established in 1959 and is regulated under the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act.

Natural, cultural and recreational values

Wasaga Beach Provincial Park is a popular destination, welcoming over one million visitors each year. The park offers:

• an extensive year-round trail network
• an interpretive centre focused on the area’s rich cultural history
• public access to Georgian Bay
• 14 kilometres of beach and picnic areas

The beach is recognized as one of the top ten beaches in Canada.

The park also contains provincially, regionally and locally significant natural features such as:

• the largest and least disturbed ancient parabolic dunes in Ontario
• wetlands
• a portion of the Nottawasaga River
• an active freshwater beach and dune system
• ancient beach ridges
• distinct vegetation communities
• a number of species at risk and their habitats

Other information

We approved a Beach Management Secondary Plan for Wasaga Beach Provincial Park in 2017 (ER notice #012-9248). We will consider the relevant comments received as part of our planning process for the new plan.

Other public consultation opportunities

We will develop the Wasaga Beach Provincial Park Management Plan with involvement from:

• Indigenous communities
• stakeholders
• members of the public

We will invite these groups to provide comments on:

• the background information and management topics and options documents
• the preliminary management plan

We will notify groups about consultation opportunities through:

• direct mailing to Indigenous communities identified as having a potential interest in the project
• direct mailing to Ontario Parks’ mandatory contact list for planning projects
• direct mailing to those who provided comments on previous planning projects for Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, or who requested to be on the project mailing list through previous outreach initiatives
• local newspaper ads (Wasaga Sun)
• notices posted on the Environmental Registry
• notices posted at the park, in the local community, online, or other appropriate locations

Planning documents will be available online, in person at the government offices listed in this notice, and from the contact person listed in this notice. Documents will be available for review and comment during each consultation period for a minimum of 45 days.

We will consider the comments we receive as we develop the final Wasaga Beach Provincial Park Management Plan.