[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Urgent Action for Ontario Wilderness (Lands for Life)
³If you spend only five minutes this decade, sending one letter about one environmental issue in Ontario - this should be the one.²
URGENT ACTION FOR ONTARIO WILDERNESS
The fate of Ontario¹s wilderness will be decided November 30th!
See the attached press release for details. Read on to learn what you can do...
Why should I get involved?
³Being a wilderness enthusiast is a lot like sitting on an ice floe. Every day the floe gets smaller as pieces break off and float away. You know that it will continue to get smaller day by day, never bigger... We must create the will within our elected representatives at every level of government to legislate protection for wilderness areas.² - Bill Mason, Song of the Paddle, 1988 (used with permission)
1. Your first step - write, fax, e-mail
Ontario Minister of Natural Resources John Snobelen is inviting the public to comment on the ³Lands for Life² plans released October on 30th. The public has 30 days to comment on the recommendations. Comments can be sent up to the end of the business day, MONDAY NOVEMBER 30, 1998.
WRITE, FAX AND E-MAIL. Make your message clear. At least 20% of the Lands for Life area must be protected from industrial activity (not 6 to 8% as is being recommended). You can use the sample letter below as an example to write your own letter (this is best). Or, if you are short on time, simply copy the text into your email message. Be sure to include your return postal mailing address to make your letter count.
More points you may want to include in your letter:
€ The round tables have failed in their mandate to complete a system of parks and protected areas. Therefore it is up to the Minister to do it.
€ The round tables have promoted the interests of their industry representatives, and have ignored the public demand to protect 20% or more of the area in large roadless protected areas that permanently exclude industrial activities such as mining and logging.
€ The concept of ³floating reserves² (where a park is only a park until someone wants to log or mine it) is completely unacceptable.
€ Express your anger over the recommendations, but direct your anger at the recommendations, not their authors.
BY FAX OR E-MAIL:
Fax your letter toll-free to 1-800-548-5933 or e-mail to lflcomment@webmail.mnr.gov.on.ca.
BY MAIL:
Hon. John Snobelen
Minister of Natural Resources
6th Floor, Whitney Block
99 Wellesley Street West
Toronto, ON M7A 1W3
Please mark envelope: "Lands for Life".
Please send a copy to your MPP and to:
Premier Mike Harris
Room 281 Legislative Building, Queen¹s Park
Toronto, ON M7A 1A1
fax: (416) 325-3745
Please send a copy to CPAWS also (address at end). This helps a lot.
SAMPLE LETTER
=====================================
Dear Minister Snobelen,
I am writing to urge you to take two actions in response to the Consolidated Recommendations of the Lands for Life Round Tables.
First, act decisively to protect at least 20% of the Lands for Life area in large provincial parks and conservation reserves which permanently exclude industrial activity such as mining and logging. The 6 to 8% as recommended by the Round Tables is completely unacceptable.
Second, reject all the recommendations which weaken the prohibition of consumptive uses such as mining and logging in our parks and protected areas (Section 5.2). This attempt by industrial interests to roll back environmental protection in Ontario is unacceptable.
Sincerely,
=====================================
- page 1 of 4 -
2. Your Second Step - write a letter to the editor of your newspaper
This keeps the issue in the forefront of public debate where Ontario¹s wilderness deserves to be.
HOW to send Letters to the Editor:
Write a personal letter expressing what you think or feel about the Lands for Life recommendations. The preferred length is 50 to 300 words. All papers may edit letters for brevity. Fax or e-mail your letter (or snail mail if you must) to "Letters to the Editor". Include your full name, address, and daytime phone number (for verification, they won't publish it).
WHERE to send Letters to the Editor
If you want to do more once you have written to these, write to your local/community paper as well.
Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor
fax (613) 596-8458, letters@thecitizen.southam.ca
1101 Baxter Road, Ottawa,ON K2C 3M4
Toronto Star Letters to the Editor
fax 416-869-4322, e-mail: lettertoed@thestar.ca
1 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M5E 1E6
Globe and Mail Letters to the Editor
fax 416-585-5085, e-mail: letters@globeandmail.ca
National Post Letters to the Editor
fax 416-383-2439, email: letters@nationalpost.com
300-1450 Don Mills Road, Don Mills, ON M3B 3R5
3. Your third step - attend a meeting with your Member of Provincial Parliament
We are coordinating small groups of people who want to meet with their Member of Provincial Parliament. Your representative in the legislature needs to hear from you that this is an important issue, no matter which party they belong to. If you have never met with your MPP before, now is the time. If you would like join a small group to meet with your local MPP, please contact us at (613) 730-2797, langlois@cyberus.ca
One more step - tell two friends
November 1998 is a crucial month - Ontario¹s wilderness won¹t get a second chance. Spread the word. Read on for some sources providing more detailed information and regular updates. Feel free to reproduce and distribute this package in its entirety.
Don¹t have a fax machine?
Don¹t let that slow down your letter. Many corner stores and stationery stores offer a public fax service for a dollar or two. The fax to Minister Snobelen is toll free. Of course e-mail is free and instantaneous.
Not keen on writing letters ?
Bill Mason, the great Canadian artist, author, and award-winning film maker, didn¹t enjoy writing letters either. His daughter Becky explains why he did it anyway:
³I asked Dad once why he wrote so many letters asking government officials to reconsider their stance on various environmental platforms. I figured it was odd for Dad to devote half a day of every week to letter writing when he was already so busy making his films and books about preserving our environment. He lifted a letter from his done pile and asked me to read it. As I read I was impressed at how polite and simple it was, I understood the message and also felt the passion he had for our disappearing wilderness. Dad told me that just one personal letter written to the government is important because they realize that if one person has written in,at least a hundred probably meant to write but never got around to it. It was a real eye opener for me that all letters short, long, learned, or just heart felt can accomplish the perceived impossible.² - Becky Mason (November 1998)
About CPAWS
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) has been Canada¹s grassroots voice for wilderness for 35 years. We work in cooperation with other environmental groups, governments, First Nations, scientists, and local communities to establish new parks and protected areas. We make sure nature comes first in determining how parks are managed. To date we have ensured the protection of over 250 000 square kilometres of Canada¹s natural heritage. We are a member-based charitable organization.
If you would like information about becoming a member of CPAWS and supporting our work, please contact us:
CPAWS - Ottawa Valley Chapter/Vallée de l¹Outaouais
Box 3072 Station D, Ottawa, ON K1P 6H6
tel (613) 730-2797, fax (613) 730-0005
http://www.cpaws-ov.org
langlois@cyberus.ca
- page 3 of 4 -
NEWS RELEASE
Monday Nov. 2, 1998 - Ottawa
Lands for Life report seen as attack on Ontario parks and wilderness
Conservation organizations across Ontario are appalled by a report released Friday by Natural Resources Minister John Snobelen. After 4 months of secrecy, Snobelen released the Consolidated Recommendations of the Lands for Life Round Tables, outlining how the Ontario government should allocate crown land to uses such as forestry, mining, parks and protected areas.
³The consolidated Round Table report constitutes a virtual declaration of war against parks and protected areas in Ontario.² said Jean Langlois, speaking for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. ³The report fails to meet the government¹s own targets for new parks. It fails to meet the public¹s land protection expectations, and it would roll back the protection of existing parks and protected areas in Ontario.²
Currently, 6.5 % of Ontario¹s land is protected in protected areas, as recognized by the World Wildlife Fund¹s Endangered Spaces program (that is areas where logging, mining, and hydroelectric development are prohibited). The consolidated Round Table report proposes that an additional 1.5 % of the land be in new protected areas for a total of 8 % protected areas in Ontario. This pales in comparison to the 15 to 20% minimum set by the Partnership for Public Lands, a coalition of conservation organizations from across Ontario, and to the 50 to 75% that some scientists are now finding is required to maintain natural biodiversity. Public opinion is consistently in favour of 20% and up. The most recent polls show 86% of Ontarians (including 81% of northern Ontarians), support at least this level of protection, with the majority stating that 20% is not enough.
³The round tables were given a mandate to respect existing laws and policies. They have not. Period.² Langlois states categorically. Despite the Minister¹s directive to work within existing regulations, the report includes 9 pages of proposed changes that undermine the existing regulations concerning parks and protected areas. The recommendations include:
- allow industrial uses such as mining and logging in new provincial parks and conservation reserves (Rec 151).
- allow hunting and trapping in new provincial parks, and in more existing parks (Sec 5.2)
- allow snowmobiling in new and existing parks (Sec 5.2)
- allow ³commercial fur harvesting² in all new conservation reserves (Sec 5.2)
- allow mining in existing and new conservation reserves (Sec 5.2)
If Minister Snobelen chooses to implement these plans as proposed, the consequences for Ontario¹s natural heritage will be devastating for generations.
Snobelen is inviting the public to comment on the report before he responds to it on November 30th.
- 30 -
continued...
- page 3 of 4 -
==
BACKGROUND - How much land will really be protected?
Of the seven land use designations discussed in the report only two, provincial parks and conservation reserves, are recognized as true protected areas (that is, where mining, logging, and hydroelectric development are prohibited). The round tables have created a confusing array of four new land use designations - all of which permit industrial uses such as mining and logging.
Overall, the recommendations would increase the percentage of the planning area in truly protected designations by a mere 1.5%.
The report recommends permitting industrial resource extraction in new parks and conservation reserves. Once this is factored in, the increase in protected areas in the planning area could be as little as 0%.
And it could be even worse for Ontario¹s wilderness. Once we factor in the recommendations that are meant to apply to existing parks and conservation reserves, we could be left with an Ontario where the existing 6.5% of protected land is all there is, and it will be less protected than it is today.
For more detailed information and regular updates:
November 1998 is a crucial month - Ontario¹s wilderness won¹t get a second chance. Spread the word, here are some sources for more information:
The Ministry of Natural Resources Lands for Life web site includes the full 80 page Consolidated Recommendations report: http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/MNR/lfl
The Partnership for Public Lands, a coalition of Ontario conservation groups formed specifically to deal with the Ontario government¹s ³Lands for Life² plan, has lots of information and materials.
http://www.web.net/wild, or phone toll free at 1-888-371-LAND.
CPAWS Ottawa Valley Chapter / Section Vallée de l¹Outaouais
We keep regular updates on our website, http://www.cpaws-ov.org
See below to contact us.
A note on keeping informed:
If you are not a member of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), you may never hear from us again. If you want to keep informed about all kinds of issues affecting Canadian parks, protected areas, wilderness, and public land, please consider becoming a CPAWS member. As a member of the Ottawa Valley Chapter you will receive the Wilderness Advocate, focussing on wilderness issues and activities in Ontario and Quebec, as well as the Wilderness Activist, the CPAWS national newsletter.
If you would like information about becoming a member of CPAWS and supporting our work, please contact us:
CPAWS - Ottawa Valley Chapter/Vallée de l¹Outaouais
Box 3072 Station D, Ottawa, ON K1P 6H6
tel (613) 730-2797, fax (613) 730-0005
http://www.cpaws-ov.org
langlois@cyberus.ca
- page 4 of 4 -
_______________________________________________________________
CANADIAN PARKS AND WILDERNESS SOCIETY
Ottawa Valley Chapter / Section Vallée de l'Outaouais
tel:(613) 730-2797 fax:(613) 730-0005 http://www.cpaws-ov.org
P.O. Box 3072, Station "D", Ottawa, ON, K1P 6H6
Defending wilderness in Ontario and Quebec since 1970.
_______________________________________________________________
Jean Langlois (now at: langlois@cyberus.ca)
-
This is the OPIRG-events@ox.org list. Announcement only please.
To unsubscribe, send email to opirg-events-request@ox.org, and put
"unsubscribe" in the body.