New MP Sweet on national park idea for Cootes

Councillor first raised idea to protect threatened area

By Craig Campbell, Dundas Star News (Apr 28, 2006)

The proposal for a national park including Cootes Paradise and surrounding natural land in Dundas and west Hamilton, first raised by former Liberal MP Russ Powers, is alive again.

Rookie Conservative MP David Sweet briefly discussed the topic with members of Art Samson's community council last week.

It was Mr. Samson who first raised the idea of protecting threatened Royal Botanical Gardens properties and Dundas' Pleasantview area by forming Canada's first urban national park. He asked former environment minister Stephane Dion to consider it at a Liberal party meeting just over a year ago.

Mr. Powers continued to push the idea, making a formal request to Mr. Dion and beginning preliminary meetings with property owners and supporters in the area.

Now Mr. Sweet has inherited the idea, at Mr. Samson's urging.

"The history of the RBG pretty much boils down to national history," Mr. Sweet told community council members last week.

"It's a gem of Ontario and it's a gem of Canada. We're trying to make our case. Everyone sees the need at the RBG.

Personally, my heart is there. It's a matter of working on the policy."

Support for the general idea of a national park covering Cootes Paradise and surrounding areas has come from RBG staff, as well as the Hamilton Conservation Authority and staff at Environment Canada. But Mr. Dion would not comment on the request to consider a Cootes Paradise national park.

Rona Ambrose, the new Conservative government's environment minister, did not respond to a request for information before deadline.

Mr. Samson asked his community council members to share their thoughts on the idea with Mr. Sweet, who attended the Wednesday, April 19 meeting at Dundas town hall.

"I'm sure you know our feeling. It certainly is a treasure of Canadian proportions," said Downtown Dundas BIA chair Jim Watson. "To ask the city to keep that going is a lot to ask. There's a risk the RBG could sell off part of it."

Warren Beacham of the Hamilton Naturalists' Club represents the issue of environment on the community council.

He noted the Naturalist Club now owns property in Pleasantview - the Cartwright Nature Sanctuary - and is a neighbour of the RBG.

"The RBG holds significant natural lands," Mr. Beacham said. "Is it national park status? I don't know, that's not a decision for us to make, but it has to be protected."

Community council member Jeff Saunders pointed out several local groups and Mr. Samson are working to save greenspace associated with school properties in Dundas. He said the community certainly has to fight for the much larger Cootes Paradise area if it's trying to preserve small school properties.

The area also includes Dundas' historic Desjardins Canal.

Tys Theysmeyer, an aquatic ecologist at the RBG, told the Dundas Star News there are more species at risk in the Cootes Paradise marsh than anywhere else in Canada.

According to Mr. Theysmeyer, Parks Canada has a mandate to create parks representative of each eco-region in Canada. Cootes Paradise is part of the Carolinian region, an area he says Parks Canada is very weak in.

And, he said, Cootes Paradise is the only legitimate potential place for a national park in Carolinian Canada.

Carl Rothfels, the RBG natural lands steward, echoed those thoughts, noting the area's social, recreational, educational and historical values.

"It preserves large amounts of nationally-significant habitats," Mr. Rothfels said. "It contains a bewildering list of breeding species at risk - species on the federal endangered species list."