The latest Value for Money Audit by the Auditor General  Protected Areas drew attention to that fact that two-thirds of Algonquin does not meet the criteria for a protected area because of commercial logging. It also rebuked the province for having no plan or target to expand its protected areas system.

The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario has also called for an end to logging in Algonquin Park. We welcomed this. You can read our response here.

In addition to logging and roads, there are over 300 private cottage leases in Algonquin Park. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources’ (MNR’s) own studies these, ‘represent an additional challenge to the maintenance and restoration of ecological integrity of the park’. The studies also point out that Ontario taxpayers are heavily subsidizing these cottages. Such leases privatize what should be a public good. Incredibly, a current proposal from the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) recommends to renew these private cottage leases for another 21 years beyond the current expiry date of December 31, 2017. Read more here and here.

Other uses further threaten the Park’s ecology. A major highway straddles Algonquin’s midriff, an abandoned railway line slices through its northeast and a major hydro-electric power corridor dissects its eastern shoulder. Commercial lodges hug the lake shores along the highway and hydro-electric dams control the flow on some headwater streams. All cumulatively contribute to Algonquin’s ecological stressors.

Our long standing position is that Ontario must reduce ecological stressors on Algonquin. This is consistent with the law – Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act (PPCRA) – that mandates that ecological integrity be the overriding management priority for parks and conservation reserves in province.