The future protection of Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park
The struggle to give wilderness a strong voice
On June 17th 2003, Premier Eves introduced Bill 100, an Act to protect the Kawartha Highlands Signature Site as a Provincial Park. Though the park will be officially established under the existing Provincial Parks Act, Bill 100 is a new piece of legislation specific to the Kawartha Highlands, which sets out “special provisions” that apply only to this park. While it is good news that the Kawartha Highlands will become an “operating” Provincial Park as opposed to a Conservation Reserve or Recreation Reserve, there are many weaknesses in the legislation that need to be addressed.
Background: Ontario’s Living Legacy and Bill 239
Shortly before the last provincial election in 1999, the Tory government promised the creation of 378 new protected areas, touting it as the largest park expansion in the history of this province. This great green wilderness promise has been coined Ontario’s Living Legacy.
As part of the planning process, nine unique areas were selected as Signature Sites that commanded special attention. Due to their large size and ecological significance they required a more intensive review and public consultation process before being managed as either a Provincial Park or a Conservation Reserve.
The Kawartha Highlands was one of those nine natural heritage areas selected because of its relatively undeveloped and unfragmented nature; a rare treasure in Central Ontario. These 35,318 hectares of rugged wilderness were set to become the largest protected area south of Algonquin Park until the Eves Government introduced Bill 239 - “The Recreation Reserves Act” in December 2002. The Bill put commercial development and high impact recreation ahead of conservation, attempting to turn the Kawarthas into a Disneyland for all-terrain vehicles (ATVs).
Fortunately, Queen’s Park never passed Bill 239. It died on the Order Table when the First Legislative Session was prorogued. What cannot be forgotten, along with the Bill, is the Tories’ intention to use it to appease special interest groups to the detriment of the environment.
Bill 239 exposes the Tories’ legacy of broken wilderness promises. If passed, it would have stripped away protection for the wildlife and natural environment replacing it with increased access and privileges for ATV users, snowmobilers, sport hunters and commercial hunt camps. The legislation did not state how the provincially significant wetlands or species at risk would be protected; in fact, the Bill didn’t even mention the word ‘environment’.
Costing a half million dollars of public money, a series of public consultation meetings led by a government appointed stakeholder committee considered input from over 2,200 people. The resulting recommendation to protect the Kawartha Highlands as a Provincial Park received widespread support from within the local community to citizen and environmental groups across the province. Then the government proposed Bill 239. After months of controversy over the implications of Bill 239 sparked by environmental groups, opposition parties and community activists, the Eves government responded by appointing MPP Chris Hodgson to lead a new round of public consultations on how the Kawarthas should now be protected.
Bill 100, Kawartha Highlands Signature Site Park Act, 2003
Strengths
It’s an operating park!
Operating Provincial Parks have staff on-site and are managed with more resources and tools to enforce restricted activities. That’s not to say that Ontario’s parks are truly protected wilderness areas, only that the park designation is the best preservation tool we have thus far. The Provincial Parks Act needs significant revisions. It has not had any significant amendments since 1964, when Ontario had only 8 Provincial Parks to manage.
Protecting ecological integrity
This is the first piece of provincial legislation to prioritize ecological integrity. Protecting ecological integrity would be the overriding priority in the management and administration of the Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park.
Industrial activities such as logging are prohibited
Unlike the outdated Provincial Parks Act, this new legislation prohibits commercial logging, mining and hydro-electric development within park boundaries. However, there are pre-existing mine claims within the area that will be permitted, and the area around these claims will be managed as Forest Reserves.
No new trails or roads
The new legislation prohibits any further building of roads and trails except solely for park management purposes. There will be two new park entrances created.
Weaknesses
There are more than 2,000 cottages and 60 hunt camps in the Kawartha Highlands area. Cottagers and sport hunters do not want their rights and privileges to be affected by this new legislation. Many conflicts between environmentalists, cottagers and recreationalists have subsequently arisen due to opposing interests in how the area is managed.
Hunting
Section 11(1) of the proposed legislation states “For greater certainty, a person may hunt, fish and trap in the Park in accordance with the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act.” This provision seems to protect hunting from being prohibited in the future. Earthroots is concerned that sport hunting will be protected from public scrutiny and environmental assessments and that there will not be opportunity through the public park management planning process to address the impact this activity has on wildlife and the ecological integrity of the area.
The proposed legislation permits sport hunting (on ATVs and snowmobiles) on all existing roads and trails in the park.
Recreational ATV use 
Miners, hunters, trappers and bait fishers are permitted to ride ATVs to their claim site, hunt camp, trapline, or bait fish license area. Sport hunters can drive ATVs and snowmobiles on all existing roads and trails in the park.
Off-road and off-trail ATV and snowmobile use will be prohibited. Cottagers can also use ATVs and snowmobiles on existing trails and roads to access their properties.
The Ministry will attempt to restrict motorized access to these uses through a permit system. All of the above mentioned users will be required to carry park access permits with them.
Park management and enforcement
Earthroots is concerned that because of the heavy cuts to the Ministry of Natural Resources budget and specifically to the Ontario Parks program, staff do not have the resources they need to properly control high impact recreational activity in the Kawartha Highlands and other protected areas.
A recent report by the University of Victoria gave Ontario a failing grade in park management. The report said that Ontario’s Parks suffer from mediocre laws and grossly inadequate funding. The Provincial Auditor also came down harshly on the Ontario Government’s ability to properly manage Provincial Parks in his 2002 Annual Report, citing that only 42% of Ontario Parks have management plans in place, which are essential planning tools. Without proper park management planning, habitat destruction and other activities that threaten wildlife occurred without any controls. The Provincial Auditor also reported that three quarters of the park superintendents who responded to a survey stated that the parks that they are responsible for had not been adequately maintained to ensure that natural resources were protected.
According to the University Victoria Report “Wild By Law” -while Ontario's park visitor numbers have increased by 60% over the last 15 years, the parks management budget has been slashed by 62% by this government. The Ministry of Natural Resources staff has been decimated to the point where the ministry simply doesn't have the people to do the job. Since 1995, over 3,000 jobs have been cut from the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Earthroots is opposed to sport hunting in Provincial Parks for the protection of wildlife and the safety of park users. A study conducted by Earthroots found that not only are park staff unaware of how many wildlife species are hunted in the park every season, but they didn’t even know who managed hunting. Some park staff didn’t even know that hunting was permitted in the park that they worked for. The Ministry of Natural Resources encourages Ontarians to wear bright orange safety vests when entering a park during hunting season yet at the same time actively promotes nature-based tourism such as hiking and camping as a year-round activity in these same areas.
If the Ontario Parks budget has been starved of funds, how will the government ensure that there is enough money to properly manage and regulate the high-impact activities currently permitted in the Kawartha Highlands?
Management Advisory Board.
The proposed legislation would also establish a management advisory board to provide advice about the planning and management of the park. Earthroots is concerned that the advisory board will be predominately comprised of special interest lobby groups rather than a fair representation of the diverse stakeholders concerned about park management. Park management advisory boards should include conservation biologists, First Nations groups, ecotourist operators, environmental groups and park users that participate in non-consumptive activities. These groups are always underrepresented and often not invited to participate in an advisory role.
All Ontarians are stakeholders on how the province’s parks and protected areas are managed. Polling has shown that the vast majority of Ontarians view the preservation of wildlife and ecological integrity as the most important objective of park management. The vast majority of Ontarians are against the allowance of sport hunting and high-impact recreation in protected areas. These interests should have higher representation on park management advisory boards to fairly reflect the natural demographics of the province.
Protected Areas must truly be protected
Protected areas are just a small fraction of the provincial landscape to set aside for the preservation of wildlife and natural features. To ensure that these areas continue to exist for future generations, industry and high-impact recreation should be kept out. Most Ontarians envision their parks to be sanctuaries for wildlife and their natural habitat requirements, not reserves for industry and high-impact recreation. As Ontario’s population approaches 12 million, our cities continue to sprawl and our air and watersheds become more polluted, the need to protect wilderness areas from these disturbances becomes critical.
References and More Background Information:
Wild by Law: A Report Card on Laws Governing Canada's Parks and Protected Areas, and a Blueprint for Making these Laws More Effective. By David R. Boyd. University of Victoria. May 2002
This report card evaluates the adequacy of the laws governing protected areas throughout Canada and recommends ways to strengthen park protection. To read the report (PDF: 319 KB), visit: www.polisproject.org/polis2/PDFs/WildbyLaw.pdf
To read the Provincial Auditor’s 2002 Report, visit: www.gov.on.ca/opa/english/r02t.htm Section 3.07 reviews the Ontario Parks Program.
To read Premier Eve’s statement and introduction of Bill 100, An Act respecting the Kawartha Highlands Signature Site Park in the Hansard, visit: http://gateway.ontla.on.ca/hansard/house_debates/37_parl/Session4/L027A.htm#P136_20242
To view Bill 100, An Act respecting the Kawartha Highlands Signature Site Park, visit:
http://gateway.ontla.on.ca/documents/Bills/37_Parliament/Session4/b100_e.htm
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