Rondeau and Wabakimi – two parks in big trouble
From Peaceful Parks Coalition March 24 2013
Wabakimi Wilderness Park
Wabakimi is classified as a wilderness park. There are only eight wilderness parks in Ontario: Kesagami, Killarney, Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater, Opasquia, Polar Bear, Quetico, Wabakimi, Woodland Caribou.
Wilderness class parks are large intact wilderness areas where natural systems are allowed to fluctuate with natural forces with little or no human intervention.
Visitors may travel on foot or by canoe, no mechanized travel is permitted, and offer little if any facilities for visitors. These areas provide the solitude of an undisturbed, natural setting.
This could all change as the Ontario govt. begins a management planning process for Wabakimi Wilderness Park. Please get involved.
Wabakimi is located approx. 500 km. north of Thunder Bay and is home to the largest remaining, but rapidly declining, Woodland Caribou population. The Ontario govt. has already extended private hunt camps in Wabakimi, and it recently released a ‘Terms of Reference’ document suggesting further recreational development.
In the last year, the Ontario Liberal govt. has introduced several new initiatives all aimed at reducing environmental protection in a desperate attempt to spur economic growth – from weakening the Endangered Species Act, to allowing aggregate extraction in wetlands. The new Wabakimi Management Plan is no different. The need for tough environmental protection of wilderness parks to preserve its wilderness qualities is being challenged in order to spur economic development in this area of Ontario.
The area surrounding Wabakimi already suffers from immense industrial pressure from logging companies clearcutting the boreal forest and destroying Woodland Caribou homeland. For anyone who has traveled to this area of Ontario, they will likely understand that northern Ontario is anything but pristine but rather a forestry and mining industrial wasteland. The only difference is that these activities are hidden from view behind strips of standing trees along highways.
Wabakimi remains the only refuge and hope in preserving any remnants of a naturally functioning ecosystem.
Environmental Bill of Rights Registry EBR # 001-8197
Please send comments to:
Michèle Proulx, Park Planner
Ministry of Natural Resources
Provincial Services Division, Ontario Parks
Northwest Zone Office
435 James Street South
Thunder Bay Ontario
P7E 6S8
Phone: (807) 475-1477
Fax: (807) 475-1499
Email: michele.proulx@ontario.on
Rondeau Provincial Park could be severed for cottagers.
At the request of the City of Chatham, the new Kathleen Wynne Liberal govt. is seriously considering severing Rondeau Provincial Park along the area where private cottages sit. Cottages sit in a cluster along the entrance of the park and along the public beach.
Cottage leases expire in 2017.
This happened at Presqu’ile Provincial Park in the 1960’s along Bayshore Road. Rather than phase out privately leased cottages in a provincial park, the govt. of the day simply severed Presqui’le and privatized the cottages outright into a subdivision for the City of Brighton. The City of Brighton benefitted from the taxes collected.
Today, Kathleen Wynne is seriously considering the same to resolve a long standing dispute between cottagers and the Ontario govt. regarding lease extensions.
Rondeau and Algonquin Provincial Parks are the only parks in Ontario that allow private cottages.
The issue of private cottages in provincial parks has always been contentious because cottage owners tend to be wealthy and have privileged and subsidized access to an otherwise public resource. Cottages can also be rented generating income for the leaseholder.
In Rondeau Park cottagers have transformed the fragile sand dune beach habitat into a massive subdivision with stately cottages, manicured front lawns and four door garages. The presence of cottages require street lights, electrical service, service roads, septic tanks and inappropriate landscaping has contributed to the introduction of invasive species.
But more importantly, cottages have displaced the sensitive sand dune habitat now considered threatened from shoreline development.
Also at the centre of the debate is the issue of public ownership. Most of the land in southern Ontario is privately owned. There is very little public land and even less public shoreline.
Severing Rondeau is a real slap in the face when considering public access to public beaches is already so restricted, and the urgency of protecting threatened habitat.
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