Ontario is planning to sell off 60% of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park Beachfront for Development. The Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act is also under threat.
This letter will be sent to your local MPP, Wasaga Beach City Council, Premier Doug Ford, Leaders of the Official Opposition Marit Stiles, Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party Bonnie Crombie, Leader of the Ontario Green Party Mike Schreiner.
The Ontario government is proposing to sell key parts of one of Ontario’s most visited Provincial Parks for a development scheme - and to strip an even larger area of its Provincial Park status. The area marked for sale includes about 60% of the Park’s celebrated Georgian Bay beachfront lands and critical habitat of the endangered piping plover.
Even more concerning, the Ontario government is targeting the legislation called the “Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act” (PPCRA) - that protects all of Ontario Parks and Conservation Reserves against back-room selloffs.
Ecological values in The Wasaga Beach Provincial Park lands to be lost include:
- Known piping plover habitat, which is listed as endangered under both the federal Species at Risk Act and the provincial Endangered Species Act
- Mature sand dunes, which provide important ecological and stabilizing functions including providing a protective buffer against high water, wind, and storm events for private or adjacent lands, which is an important role as the climate changes
- Significant vegetation communities and provincially significant wetlands
- “The Point” located in Beach Area 1 which is one those targeted to be removed is designated as a provincially significant earth science Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI)
Hundreds of thousands of people enjoy these beaches all year round, because these lands belong to the people of Ontario, not wealthy developers. Send a letter to your MPP, Wasaga Beach City Council and key decision makers to say “Hands off Wasaga Beach!”
