I want to rise today to speak about the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake and to congratulate them on their 60th anniversary.

This past Saturday, I got the chance to go with my beautiful wife, Rita, to see the opening night performance of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas at the Shaw. It was a wonderful show. I even had the privilege of meeting some of the talented cast members.

It all started in 1962, when the Shaw was founded, inspired by the life and works of George Bernard Shaw.

This year, in 2022, the Shaw is celebrating not only their 60th anniversary, but their biggest season yet, with 14 plays in three different theatres, as well as Outdoors @ The Shaw, and a series of concerts and outdoor events on the Festival Theatre grounds.

This has been a banner year for the Shaw. They have come back strong from COVID and shown the world they are one of the best destinations for theatre in Canada. Through their impressive fundraising achievements this year and community support, they continue to grow. The Shaw is a shining light for our arts and culture community in Niagara, and something that’s very, very important.

Throughout the entire pandemic, the Shaw has kept all 500 of their employees working. We need to thank Tim Jennings, all the staff, the actors, the board members and the volunteers for such a successful organization.

The Shaw Festival is truly remarkable. It’s a wonderful hub of culture and an important part of what makes our community and our heritage in Niagara so special.

And I want to thank the tourism minister and his wife for coming to the Shaw on Saturday night to help us celebrate our 60th anniversary.

I rise today to discuss the important motion in front of us, creating the Ojibway National Urban Park.

I would like to begin by noting the incredible work that my colleague from Windsor West has done to make the Ojibway national park become a reality. She has worked and continues to work with the city of Windsor, Caldwell First Nation, the member of Parliament, Brian Masse, constituents and various environmental groups to get this project done.

I truly commend her work, which has paved the way to where we are today, and I want to acknowledge her tireless effort and willingness to work with everybody in this House for the Ojibway National Urban Park initiative that is in her riding of Windsor West. It’s a perfect example of a member going into their community, listening, gathering support, working with their federal counterpart and bringing forward legislation that should be supported by all in this House. So thank you for all the hard work that was put into this previous motion. It’s always great to see multiple levels of government working together to serve the best interests of their communities.

Speaker, I’d really like to start with something fundamentally important: the protection of the significant environmentally sensitive land. The climate crisis that we face in Ontario, in Canada and right across the world only adds to the urgency of projects like the one in front of us today. The project is going to take several important pieces of land, including the Ojibway Park, Spring Garden Natural Area, Black Oak Heritage Park, the Tallgrass prairie park, the Ojibway Prairie Provincial Nature Reserve and Ojibway Shores, all into 900 acres of national park.

While I know the member from Windsor West has highlighted how many of these areas are significant, the transfer of the Ojibway Prairie Provincial Nature Reserve to Parks Canada will allow this important ecosystem and green space to be properly protected. It will include protecting local endangered species, aiding flood mitigation efforts as climate change increases flooding events, and creating publicly accessible green space that will encourage ecotourism and preserve natural heritage sites. The benefits of this park creation are well founded and hard to not support.

But I know the protection of significant environmental lands is not something this government is too concerned about. We can see that with the passing of Bill 23 and the gutting of our greenbelt in Ontario, including my community of Niagara, because we know that’s what Bill 23 does. That legislation will not solve the housing crisis; in fact, it will make the housing crisis even worse, especially for seniors and our young people. It will tear up some of the most important wetlands, farmlands and green space in the country. We saw that through the—

It will tear up some of the most important wetlands, farmlands and green space in the country. We saw through the pandemic the importance of our local farmers and having our own food supply. This bill is a slap in the face to our farmers, and quite frankly, we have an—

Speaker, I think we should also really focus on ecotourism benefits that could be created with the passing of this motion. In my riding of Niagara Falls, I’ve had the honour of living among the most prominent ecotourism destinations in Ontario: the Niagara parks, the stretch of land around the Niagara River. We also have beautiful Niagara-on-the-Lake in my riding, and the natural heritage they have preserved is a major reason for tourism. So I’ve seen first-hand how preservation of natural areas can really boost your tourism industry. This will likely be the case with the creation of this national park.

Speaker, I want to be clear on this. I’d like to wrap up by briefly discussing how hard I know the member from Windsor West has worked on her motion related to this issue. The member from Windsor West worked hard in speaking with stakeholders, with local First Nations groups, with her federal counterpart to bring this bill together and put this before the House. I want to be clear on this, because it has happened before in this House: It’s unfortunate that the PC member has ridden in at the eleventh hour to get some attention with this legislation. It’s unfortunate that they did not work constructively together with the member from Windsor West. That’s what we’re supposed to do in this House—work together—and this is a perfect example of how we could’ve done it a lot better.

Thank you very much for giving me a few minutes of your time.