Now That The ‘Project Niagara’ Plan Is Dead, How About Pursuing That Eco-Park Idea On Those Scenic Lakeshore Lands

By Doug Draper

Plans by a coalition of interests, including the Niagara Arts Council, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and others working under the name ‘Project Niagara’, to launch a summer music festival on lakeshore lands in Niagara-on-the-Lake are dead.

This Niagara Project vision of a summer evening music festival along a scenic stretch of Lake Ontario shoreline has faded to black.

Project Niagara has pulled the plug on its plans for a 17-week festival on 270 acres of Parks Canada lands along Lake Ontario, reportedly due to a realization that it is not likely to get the tens-of-millions of dollars in funding it would need from Ontario’s provincial government and the federal government to turn it into a reality.

The demise of this $76-million vision for a ‘Tanglewood-like’ venue for music under the stars will sadden some. But there are no doubt others – especially people living in the vicinity of the lands where the festival would go – who are relieved by the news.

“The Harmony Residents Group was pleased to learn that Project Niagara has ended its efforts to develop a summer music festival. We believe (this festival) was an inappropriate use for the Lakeshore Road property,” said Randy Busbridge, head of the residents group in a statement this July 15 to Niagara At Large. “We extend our best wishes to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and National Arts Council. They are both venerable institutions and we wish them well,” continued Busbridge, who went on to say that he hopes residents in Niagara-on-the-Lake and surrounding communities, including all levels of government, will remain united in realizing another plan for the Parks Canada lands.

Aerial shot of Parks Canada land that could be a sprawling public site celebrating Niagara's ecology.

That plan, floated by the Harmony group for the past few years as an alternative to the Project Niagara project, calls for developing the lands, which is home to a host of wildlife and a stand old Carolinian forest, as an eco park.

“Such a park,” said Busbridge, “would compliment existing nature and heritage attractions (and) would play to our strenght as a picturesque town, steeped in history surrounded by natural wonders. It ouwld respond to a growing segment of the tourism market.”

Gary Burroughs, Niagara-on-the-Lake’s lord mayor, calls the eco-park plan a “fabulous idea” for the lakefront land and says he wants to work with the Harmony group to promote it to before other levels of government.

They may wish to start at the regional government level, where the region’s chairman, Peter Partington, has already vowed to make protecting and preserving shoreline areas where the public has access to our rivers and lakes one of his priorities before he leaves office at the end of this year. Indeed, Niagara is blessed with being nestled between two of the greatest freshwater lakes in the world.

A stand of old-growth Carolinian forest on lands some want to preserve as a publicly accessible eco-park in Niagara.

Unfortunately, there are too few places left where people can get out of their cars with their friends or members of their family and walk freely along the shores without encountering ‘no tresspassing’ signs or a fence running right down to the waterline.

On provincial member of parliament – Kim Craitor, the Liberal MPP for a riding of Niagara Falls that includes Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake – is trying to do something about that with a private member’s bill calling for more public access to our lake shores. But so far, other members of his own majority government have not embraced that bill.

So suffice to say, public access to the Parks Canada lands in Niagara-on-the-Lake would therefore be a welcome draw for residents and visitors to our region alike.

(Click on Niagara At Large at http://www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to our greater binational Niagara region.)