Gatineau Park
Senate Bill S-229
On June 10, Senator Roas Galvez (Bedford) and Sophie Chatel, Member of Parliament for Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi announced the re-introduction of Senate Bill S-229 An Act to Amend the National Capital Act (Gatineau Park) to grant Gatineau Park the protections it derseves to ensure its long-term survival. When passed, the Bill will recognize the boundaries of the park in an act of Parliament for the first time ever and will ensure that the maintenance and restoration of ecological integrity are the overriding management priorities for the park – as is the case for our national parks and most provincial parks in Canada.
You can follow the Bill’s progress on the Senate of Canada’s website at: https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/45-1/bill/S-229/first-reading
What can you do? Consider sending a message to Senator Galvez and MP Chatel to congratulate them on their leadership in protecting Gatineau Park and to let them know the protection of Gatineau Park is important to you, your group or community.
Overview
Stretching across more than 361 square kilometres of rich and diverse habitats, the Gatineau Park is one of the largest and most ecologically important parks in the Ottawa Valley. Lying in the transition zone between the Boreal Forest of the Canadian Shield to the North and the eastern temperate forest of the St. Laurence Lowlands to the south, it provides a unique opportunity for plants and animals which would not normally co-exist, to find a common home. This rare ecosystem also means the Gatineau Park is home to the greatest number of endangered species of any park in the province of Quebec.
Easily accessible from both Ottawa and Gatineau, the Gatineau Park offers a wide range of recreational activities, including hiking, skiing, biking and camping as well as the many benefits of simply spending time in nature to visitors and to the local community.
Sadly, this well-love and ecologically significant park is under threat of development and industrialisation.
Without the proper legislative protections afforded to national parks, the Gatineau Park is already seeing many areas being lost to housing projects, road creation and the expansion of recreational areas, threatening it’s ecological viability and unique biodiversity.
This is why CPAWS-OV are fighting to have the Gatineau Park granted full legislative protection, including boundaries set in an act of parliament. We are also pushing for an in depth and sustainable management plan that puts the incredible nature here at it’s core.
We want a thriving and resilient ecosystem, for both nature and people, that will stand the test of time.
Species at risk need protected nature to roam and thrive.
The lack of a comprehensive land-use strategy for the surrounding lands and a buffer zone between the Gatineau Park and adjacent development is one of the greatest urbanization and development threats facing the park. This means when development is allowed to take place right next to the park boundary, species avoid the outer edges due to habitat fragmentation and human presence, effectively shrinking the size of the park in terms of its value to species. Urbanization and development threaten to destroy this vital habitat for close to 90 endangered plant and 60 endangered animal species.
The Gatineau Park provides habitats for 27% of all plant and vertebrate animals found in Canada, and more than 40% of those found in Quebec and Ontario. These species depend on protected biodiversity to survive long-term.
CPAWS-OV is calling for action:
We are calling on Parliament to:
- Establish Gatineau Park in legislation and dedicate it to future generations;
- Ensure that the priority of the Park’s management be conservation and ecological integrity;
- Give the National Capital Commission right of first refusal on the sale of private property located inside Gatineau Park;
- Stipulate that changes to Gatineau Park boundaries can only be made by parliamentary approval, as is the case for Canada’s national parks
We are calling on bordering municipalities to:
- Actively participate in the protection of Gatineau Park
- Consider the ecological integrity and benefits of having a healthy, beautiful park in their backyard when planning development
- Create wildlife corridors and buffer zones in their areas of jurisdiction
We are calling on the National Capital Commission to:
- Manage the park as they would a National Park
- Stop all new roads and development inside the Park, including the proposed new hospital at the Asticou site, which is within the park’s boundaries
- Acquire critical or ecologically sensitive lands around the park to serve as a buffer zone
- Work with local municipalities to define and establish viable ecological corridors between the park and surrounding lands
For more information on Gatineau Park’s incredible ecology and our thoughts on how it should be cared for to ensure it’s viability please read our Gatineau Park report.
It's time to review the NCC's Gatineau Park Conservation Plan
It has been over 15 years since the National Capital Commission published their Gatineau Park Ecological Conservation Plan outlining how they will conserve and protect the rich biodiversity present here, specifying how it is to be managed first of all for nature conservation.
We are now calling for the NCC to review and renew their plan and have sent in comments and suggestions to help ensure a future plan would work harder to look nature in the Gatineau Park.