Comments on plan for Prince Edward Point open to March 31

In August 2016 Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Canadian Wildlife Service held a meeting in Picton where they presented a draft of their proposed Management Plan for the Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area located at the end of Long Point in South Marysburgh. There was little notice of the meeting but 40 or so County people attended and there was agitated discussion.

ECC Canada does not control the Point Traverse harbour, nor the Parks Canada lighthouse at Long Point. However, the ECC Canada staff had strong views about the commercial fishing out of the harbour, and various other issues around those Wildlife Area lands. They said that they would be posting a proposed Management Plan, for comment, for the Prince Edward County Wildlife Area on their website sometime in the fall.

Nothing was heard from them until the end of January when they quietly posted their proposed Management Plan, with a comment period that runs until March 31st.

Information can be found at http://www.ec.gc.ca/ap-pa/default.asp?lang=En&n=741BB7B6-1#_005 It is the same draft plan they presented last August, with no consideration of the comments offered at the August meeting.
Draft plan pdf here: http://www.ec.gc.ca/ap-pa/F9B122F9-E1ED-41F7-8D7D-5828786B5548/PEP_NWA_MP_P.pdf

They say that upon conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the department will review and consider all comments received to inform the final Management Plan. At no point in this process does ECC Canada feel obliged to carry on a dialogue with the various County stakeholders in the overall management of the Wildlife Area as part of the South Shore ecosystem of South Marysburgh. They behave as an autonomous authority, accountable to nobody in the County.

That is not enough.

Read the proposed Management Plan. Make your views known both regard to the contents of the plan, and insist that they return to the County and sitting around a table, as one of the stakeholders, to address their role in the overall mixed use of the lands of the South Shore of South Marysburgh. They can be reached by email at: ec.ap-consultations-pa.ec@canada.ca .

– Sam Lanfranco, PEC