April 27, 2009
The Manitoba government and the Tim Horton’s Foundation are proposing a kid’s camp on Meditation Lake in Whiteshell provincial park. CPAWS is highly in favour of children experiencing and enjoying wilderness but the proposed location for the camp is unsuitable and the government’s antiquated approach to “developing-before-planning” is being heavily criticized. CPAWS is opposing the location of the proposed Tim Horton’s kid’s camp for the following reasons:
- unnecessarily increasing access to an ecologically sensitive park wilderness area
- questionable water quality for swimming as the lake has been known to be covered with toxic algae blooms during summer months
- introducing this development proposal before the long overdue Whiteshell Park Management Plan is complete. In other words, a backwards approach of development before planning
- an unwillingness by the province to share all the requested information about the proposed project