Stephen Hazell
Director of Conservation
and General Counsel

The House of Commons gets back to work on January 25, so what should be on its legislative agenda to protect nature?  Many laws need to be changed to build a framework for an ecologically sustainable Canada.

But here is an easy one for the new Liberal government and the House of Commons: Amend the Rouge National Park law to establish the primacy of ecological integrity in park management and expand the park to include adjacent public lands currently under federal jurisdiction.

Rouge Park by Jamie

Prime Minister Trudeau has already directed Environment and Climate Change Minister McKenna in her mandate letter to “work with the Ontario government to enhance the country’s first National Urban Park,” in part through “improved legislation to protect this important ecosystem and guide how the park will be managed.” Nature Canada and many other nature groups appreciated and supported the government’s election commitments to better protect National Parks and establish new National Wildlife Areas.

Nature Canada, Ontario Nature and Environmental Defence  jointly wrote to the Minister in late 2015 requesting that needed amendments be introduced into the House of Commons early in the legislative session. What a gift to Canadians in the GTA to have a real national park in their backyard stretching from the Oak Ridges Moraine to Lake Ontario!