What is Left of our Natural Heritage is this Region of Ours is Worth Far More than $1.5 Billion to This and to Future Generations
A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper
Posted January 27th, 2020 on Niagara At Large
It would mean an investment of $1.5 billion into the Niagara region, claim the representatives of the China-based GR (CAN) Investment firm that have been pressing for more than four years now to build a residential and commercial complex within the perimeters of 484 acres of lands many of us in Niagara, Ontario have come to know as the Thundering Waters Forest.
It would, they go on to claim, create hundreds of jobs (perhaps as many as a thousand) in its construction, and thousands more once it is built.
An important question that all of us, including our decision makers in Niagara, should consider is this.
How much is a place like Thundering Waters – a green area rich with trees and other vegetation, and with some of the small percentage of provincially significant wetlands we have left in our region – worth?
The Thundering Waters lands in Niagara Falls, Ontario, inside the orange lines to the left in this aerial photo, with the Niagara River, spilling over the Falls, in the upper right.
I am betting that a majority of people living in this region believe that it is worth far more the way it is – as a priceless piece of our natural heritage – than $1.5 billion and however many of those jobs they are dangling out there will be offered to Canadians.
I am also betting that a majority of people in our region would prefer that this China-based firm use the skills they claim they have in in the fields of building and land restoration to locate this so-called Riverfront “city inside a city on an abandoned industrial brownfield or someplace else in Niagara that does not intrude on ecosystems vital to the health of our bi-national Niagara River watershed.
This Wednesday, January 29th – one day before an “open house” that the City of Niagara Falls is hosting on this project this Thursday, January 30th from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Gale Centre on 5152 Thorold Stone Road in Niagara Falls on this China-based project – Niagara At Large will have more to say about this controversial development play and why it has no place in the Thundering Waters site.
A peak at the rich biodiversity inside the Thundering Waters Forest.
Please stay tuned for that and in the meantime, watch this fly-over video of the Thundering Waters site, produced two years ago by Owen Bjorgan, a Niagara resident and an expert in the environmental field who has been arguing against locating this development here for more than four years now.
When Owen originally posted this video, he introduced it by saying this about Thundering Waters; “This 484 acre ecological gem is one of Niagara and Canada’s finest. It is worthy of protection, and a positive example could be set by selecting another area to develop.”
Amen.
Click on the screen below to see the video and Niagara At Large will have more to post on this issue on Wednesday, January 29th.
To read another recent news commentary Niagara At Large posted on the Thundering Waters issue, click on – https://niagaraatlarge.com/2020/01/27/china-developers-issued-stop-work-order-followed-by-notice-of-violation-for-allegedly-disturbing-provincially-significant-wetlands-in-niagara-falls/
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Niagara At Large 
Indeed priceless. Like our health. Interestingly to which it contributes in its own way.
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