Mr. Speaker, I stand today to deposit a petition on behalf of environmental activists to protect the Rouge River and the park surrounding it.
This is a 100-square-kilometre public land assembly surrounding the Rouge River and Duffins Creek watersheds in Toronto, Markham and Pickering. The publicly owned, provincial, federal and municipal land is predominately dedicated to a provincial greenbelt and a natural heritage system. It is home to the endangered mixed woodlands and Carolinian forests, and one-third of Canada's endangered species. It is also the ancestral home of the Mississauga, Huron Wendat and Seneca First Nations and their sacred burial grounds and village sites.
The petitioners are asking the Government of Canada to protect the irreplaceable 100 square kilometres of public land assembly within a healthy and sustainable Rouge national park; ensure that the Rouge national park strengthens and implements the ecological visions, policies and integrity of the approved Rouge park plan, the provincial greenbelt plan, the Rouge natural heritage action plan and the Oak Ridges Moraine conservation plan. The petitioners are also asking to protect and restore the 600-metre-wide wooded main ecological corridor linking Lake Ontario to the Oak Ridges Moraine in the Rouge national park.