Parkland grows under government plan

A program that will establish 380 new parks and protected areas in Ontario was unveiled in late March by the provincial government.

The program, dubbed Living Legacy, was the outgrowth of the province’s 2-year Lands for Life consultation, which involved conservation groups and representatives of government and industry.

The protection strategy will be the responsibility of the province’s Ministry of Natural Resources, which regulates the forest industry and carries overall responsibility for wildlife and forest conservation. The Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, which regulates the mining industry, will be implementing the recommendations that affect the mining sector.

Preservationist groups had attacked the original consultation process, charging that the provincial government was seeking ways to open all protected areas to forest and mining development. Some mining-industry groups, particularly those representing individual prospectors and small exploration companies, had feared that the proposals would render large areas of land out of bounds to prospectors, or render existing mineral properties worthless by putting up obstacles to development.

Christopher Hodgson, minister of northern development and mines, offered assurances that existing mineral property rights would not be curtailed and that protected land could still be explored. Development of protected land would then be a matter for public consultation if mineral property holders wanted to do more intensive work on the land.