An important milestone for the creation of the Ojibway National Urban Park in Windsor will take place today in Ottawa.
MP's in the House of Commons will cast a final vote on Bill C-248, An Act to amend the National Parks Act and allow for the creation of the Ojibway National Urban Park of Canada.
The private member's bill was introduced by Windsor West New Democrat MP Brian Masse, who's been working for over a decade to create the park.
The bill is expected to receive all party support and once passed would move to the Senate for final approval.
Once approved, the proposed Ojibway National Urban Park would be over 900 acres and include Ojibway Shores, Ojibway Park, Spring Garden Natural Area, Black Oak Heritage Park, the Tallgrass Prairie Park and the Ojibway Prairie Provincial Nature Reserve.
Masse says having the support of Windsor-Tecumseh MP Irek Kusmierczyk and the Liberals is great news, however there's more work to be done.
"It's kind of similar to my work on the Gordie Howe Bridge is that until I can cross it and walk across like everybody else and celebrate then the work is never done. So it's an exciting milestone, and having the support of the entire house is hopefully going to happen or close to it because this project does belong to everybody."
Windsor-Tecumseh MP Irek Kusmierczyk says this process is now on warp speed and will be sharing more details and announcements in the months to come.
"We will have a Ojibway National Urban Park by 2025 if not sooner. I'm optimistic and I fully expect that we'll have a fully functioning operational Ojibway National Urban Park before that. And again one of the reasons why is because we are united. Because everyone is rolling up their sleeves and working together."
Kusmierczyk added that over the next year we'll see a park management plan being hammered out.
"It's really important to emphazise here that Caldwell First Nation and Walpole Island First Nation are going to be leading that process," he said. "Because not only will they co-design what the park is actually going to look like physically and how it's going to be run, Indigenous partners are going to be co-stewards and co-managers of an Ojibway National Urban Park."
On April 16, the Executive Director for Protected Areas Establishment at Parks Canada said the next steps for the park would include moving into the planning phase with the City of Windsor, and all of the partners involved.
Caroline Macintosh said that following the planning phase, Parks Canada would move move to make the park operational.
The Urban Park was slated to be completed and open in 2025, but Macintosh says with the speed of things right now they're hoping to be operational by 2024.