Land deal among 'first concrete steps' toward opening Ojibway national urban park

The Ojibway National Urban Park is now one step closer to opening.

Windsor MP Irek Kusmierczyk and Port Windsor CEO Steve Salmons had a press conference on Monday where they announced the transfer of two parcels of land to Parks Canada.

"Today marks an important milestone of the Parks Canada process as we take the first concrete steps to assemble the land for an OjibwayNational Urban Park and protect the OjibwayShores forever," saidKusmierczyk.

PortWindsor ownstwo parcels of land across four hectares. The Ojibway Shores area spans 13 hectares, about 10of those being land and nearly threehectaresof water on Lake Erie,said Salmons.

Salmons said Port Windsor's agreement with the federal government also stated the port will have the "right to the opportunity to develop the [2.8 hectares] of waterfront into a compensatory fish habitat."

He called it a "double win" for the project.

"Not only is today marking the very first transfer of properties of the the new urban park, it also locks in the protection and development of the Ojibway shoreline for fish habitat protection," he said.

The protection project will be at Port Windsor's full cost and development, according to Salmons.

"The port remains fully committed to its three pronged commitment to the community of as a steward of economic development, as a steward of community commitment, and today, most certainly a steward of environmental commitment," he added.

Next steps

Kusmierczyk noted the community organizations such as Citizens Environment Alliance, Unifor Local 444, Detroit River Canadian Cleanup and more, who "have been fighting to protect the Ojibway Shores for over a decade."

"Today is their victory," he said.

Kusmierczyk said he's very optimistic about the accelerated development of the park.

"I'm very confident that we will conclude the pre-feasibility stage [in May]," he said and added every park that has gotten past this stage has become a national park.

He said the next step is to finalize transfers for the three remaining parcels, which he hopes will be announced soon.

"In terms of when we'll see an OjibwayNational Urban Park open to the public," he added. "I'm pushing as hard as we can to get it done within the next say year and a half."

He said they're on an "accelerated time track," as other national parks have taken a decade to complete.

At the same timethe government is establishing the park throughaprocess with Parks Canada, Windsor West NDP MP Brian Masse has been working to createthe park through aprivate member's bill.