LETTER

Gatineau Park: Feds urged to table bill 

The Gatineau Park Protection Committee (GPPC) is urging the minister responsible for the National Capital Commission (NCC) to introduce legislation to protect Gatineau Park.  The GPPC has outlined to Minister Anita Anand a dozen serious problems affecting Gatineau Park -- to illustrate the need for a better legislative framework. 

The park is literally falling apart as a result of Liberal government inaction, as well as the NCC’s timid and weak leadership, failure to respect its own Master Plan and obsessive-compulsive determination to manage Gatineau Park primarily for the benefit of special interests and private land owners. 

The GPPC highlights several problems, including collapsing lookouts, outbreaks of cyanobacteria at the park’s three main lakes in 2019, residential construction in the Meech Lake buffer strip, and conflicts of interest regarding the Park’s public advisory committee. 

As a solution, the GPPC urges the federal government to introduce legislation based on principles that prioritize conservation and ecological integrity in park management; enshrine boundaries; eliminate private property development; and dedicate the park to future generations. Moreover, it should create a mechanism to ensure consultation with the province.  

Over the last fourteen years, several bills to protect Gatineau Park have been introduced in the Senate and the House of Commons. None were adopted.

Jean-Paul Murray, 

GPPC secretary

Chelsea