A member of Windsor City Council will appear before a House of Commons committee today to discuss the proposed creation of the Ojibway National Urban Park.
Ward 1 councillor Fred Francis will appear on behalf of the City when he addresses the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development Friday afternoon.
The committee is studying Bill C-248, An Act to amend the Canada National Parks Act to make way for the creation of the Ojibway National Urban Park of Canada.
The City wants to see Ojibway Shores transferred over to Parks Canada, allowing the federal government to take control of the land as a park.
Francis says his message to the committee on behalf of the City will be to get this done sooner, rather than later.
"Obviously the Ojibway Prairie Complex is a valuable asset within the city, it's something that we all love, it's in an environmentally protected area that we have to continue to protect," he says.
Francis says if we're able to have Ojibway Shores and the entire Ojibway Complex transferred over to Parks Canada, that's a benefit to everyone.
"Obviously it's a benefit for protecting the environment but it's also a benefit for the Windsor taxpayer because we won't have to foot the bill alone," he says. "That's what we're really trying to do, we're really trying to safeguard the environment and, increase the Ojibway Prairie Complex but do it in a way where the Windsor taxpayer is not shouldering the burden 100 per cent."
Francis says if the land gets transferred over to Parks Canada, it becomes a federal park and the federal government pays for it.
"We protect the environment and we free up resources for a city taxpayer. Those resources can be directed to other environmentally sensitive lands and other environmental causes," he says. "We're fighting the good fight, hopefully people see where we're coming from and we're going to be able to be successful."
The proposed Ojibway National Urban Park would include Ojibway Park, Spring Garden Natural Area, Black Oak Heritage Park, the Tallgrass Prairie Park and the Ojibway Prairie Provincial Nature Reserve, along with Ojibway Shores, a vital 33-acre greenspace and the last remaining undeveloped natural shoreline in Windsor-Detroit.
Once all of the land is connected, the park would cover 900 acres.