Reaffirmed support for the Ojibway National Urban Park.
Windsor city council met Monday where a notice of motion was presented by ward 9 councillor Kieran McKenzie asking to re-establish support for the national urban park.
McKenzie's motion - which received unanimous support from council - asked to send correspondence to the Prime Minister, the federal minister responsible for Parks Canada, the CEO of Parks Canada, as well as all local MPs and MPPs, to notify them of the city's ongoing and continued support for the establishment of the park within Windsor.
The motion adds that the city wants to reaffirm this priority due to the newly elected federal government.
McKenzie says the city's position with this park remains unchanged.
"Fully supportive of being a constructive partner with respect to the National Urban Park proceeding in our region, and we wanted to make sure that the newly elected members of parliament were also made aware of that position, and hopefully - at least from my part - over the course of the weeks and months to come I'm going to look for opportunities to engage those folks in direct conversations around where we are on the file."
He says there is still uncertainty with where this park is at moving forward.
"The official position of the government to this day, given that they were re-elected, is that the park is going to proceed," McKenzie says. "This is the official position currently of Parks Canada but again new people in new roles means that it's just time for everybody to reaffirm their commitment."
The ward 9 councillor adds that the private members bill framework was one way to create this park.
"There's a number of different ways that that can happen, so just engaging our newly elected members around what those options might be, and what options they may consider to bring forward to their respective caucus frameworks. We also have a Senator appointed from this region who is very familiar with the issue as well, so engagement with Senator [Sandra] Pupatello I think would be another strategy that we could look at."
The private members bill to form the park was put forward by former Windsor West MP Brian Masse - calling for the creation of the urban park.
Bill C-248 had passed third and final reading, but was stuck at the committee level before the federal election was called.
Last spring, the federal government pledged $36.1-million over five years to establish the park, along with $4.6-million in annual operating funds.