We urge your committee to amend this bill to ensure greater parliamentary oversight of the NCC and of the management of Gatineau Park. Legislation to protect Gatineau Park must entrench its limits, require that environmental conservation and integrity be a management priority, eliminate real property development and recognize that Gatineau Park was created for future generations. It must absolutely take Quebec's territorial integrity into account.
In closing, Mr. Chairman, we quote the words of Percy Sparks, the founder of Gatineau Park, to a Special Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons on June 26, 1956:
The public interest has been largely overlooked in respect to the land policy and in policies generally, of the [...] Commission, in planning Gatineau Park. I suggest that personal, financial and political interests of land owners in the area exercises undue influence in the making of policy in respect to this great project.
Gatineau Park is the cornerstone of a great memorial dedicated to the 42,000 Canadian soldiers who died defending our democratic values in World War II. Yet it is the least “democratic” park in the country, and the only one that doesn't have the benefit of parliamentary oversight.
The time has come to tear down the walls of elite accommodation that surround Gatineau Park. The time has come to give the park back to the people, Mr. Chairman.