Today it was announced that Ivanhoe Provincial Park will be closing to overnight camping. This beautiful park will go from an operating park to a non-operating park.

We have been seasonal campers at Ivanhoe for several years. The mismanagement of this park by Ontario Parks has contributed directly to its demise.

Ontario Parks limit the number of seasonal sites to 25 per cent of a park which works well for parks that are on major highways or close to higher residential areas and therefore get a lot of overnight campers.

Ivanhoe always has a full complement of seasonal campers, but not as many overnight campers as some of the larger parks due to its location.

Something as simple as increasing the percentage of seasonal sites at Ivanhoe would have increased the revenue making Ivanhoe profitable. Ontario Parks has closed this park without even trying to look at ways to increase the revenue.

We have written letters to MPP Gravelle, the Minister of Natural Resources, who then forwarded the letters to Bradley Fauteax, managing director for Ontario Parks, who then sent them on to Ross Hart, the Northeast Ontario Parks Zone manager.

None of these people who are paid to represent Ontario Parks and are in positions to make a difference and fight for our beautiful northern park took the initiative to do so, therefore letting down the people of the northeast region.

This is a very sad day for Northern Ontario. We need people that are willing to get up and fight for Northern Ontario. It doesn’t make business sense to close a provincial park rather than look for ways to make it viable. Mr. McGuinty needs to know that Northern Ontario is part of Ontario too.

Linda Halt
South Porcupine, Ont.