Transport Canada agrees to transfer Ojibway Shores land

The federal government announced a collaboration deal with the City of Windsor to designate the Ojibway complex as a national urban park in Windsor, Ont. on Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. (Rich Garton/CTV Windsor)

Windsor West MP Brian Masse is thrilled that Transport Canada has signed an agreement with Parks Canada to transfer Ojibway Shores from the Windsor Port to Parks Canada as part of the process of creating Ojibway National Urban Park.

Masse says the transfer of land is an action he has called for repeatedly for the past five years and is in the lead up to the vote on Masse’s Bill C-248, to establish Ojibway National Urban Park.

He says it is a victory for all residents, the City of Windsor, and all the organization that have called for this land transfer to Parks Canada to happen.

“I have been advocating for this to many ministers of Transport and the Environment for five years. I even sent directions on how to do it to the Windsor Port Authority,” says Masse. “The federal government has finally acknowledged what has been known for five years and should have been done long ago.”

Masse says it is just one more step in the process of establishing Ojibway National Urban Park.

“I assume this action was taken today since the House of Commons vote on my bill C-248 to create Ojibway NUP is on June 8,” Masse adds.

The proposed Ojibway National Urban Park (NUP) would include Ojibway Park, Spring Garden Natural Area, Black Oak Heritage Park, the Tallgrass Prairie Park, Ojibway Prairie Provincial Nature Reserve, and Ojibway Shores, a vital 33-acre greenspace and the last remaining, undeveloped natural shoreline in Windsor-Detroit.