Removing Provincial Park Protections from Wasaga Beach Puts Piping Plovers at Risk

Wasaga Beach Provincial Park is one of Ontario’s most beloved natural places and provides habitat for endangered piping plovers. Stretching 14 kilometres along the Georgian Bay shoreline, it attracts more than one million visitors annually. Wasaga Beach is the most visited provincial park in the province. Beyond the crowds, the park protects dune ecosystems and habitats that are vital to other at-risk species like the eastern hognose snake, Hill’s thistle and the monarch butterfly.

Now, the Government of Ontario has removed provincial park protections from a significant portion of the beach and intends to transfer the lands to the Town of Wasaga Beach. This would weaken long-standing protections for these fragile habitats, and the piping plovers that depend on them.

The Plan: Develop Lands for Tourism

The news came in May 2025, when the Government of Ontario announced the transferring of lands to the Town of Wasaga Beach to develop the waterfront for tourism.

In June, the government posted a proposal on the Environmental Registry (ERO #025-0694) to amend the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act. The proposal would remove several parcels of land from Wasaga Beach Provincial Park (roughly 60 hectares). Four of the park’s eight beach areas, including Areas 1 and 2, New Wasaga Beach and Allenwood Beach are included in the transfer. These areas are the most important piping plover habitat at Wasaga Beach.

At the end of November, the Government of Ontario passed Bill 68, Plan to Protect Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2025 (No.2), which included a schedule removing these lands from regulation under the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act.

Public response to the proposal was overwhelmingly opposed, with approximately 98 percent of comments objecting to the removal of beach areas from the park. Key concerns focused on potential environmental impacts, legal and governance issues, and implications for public access and equity.

Despite this feedback, no changes were made to the proposal, citing the Town of Wasaga Beach’s commitments to maintaining public access, and avoiding development on the beach. Lands removed from the park will remain subject to Ontario’s environmental protection laws.

While the province has stated the beaches will remain public, what remains unclear is how these lands and their ecological integrity would be managed once they are no longer under provincial park legislation. These changes come at the hills of over 100 species losing protection under the province’s new Species Conservation Act.

Piping Plovers Could Lose Critical Protections

The changes to both land ownership and species at risk laws significantly heighten the endangerment to piping plovers at Wasaga Beach.

Piping plovers are small shorebirds that nest directly on open sand, making them especially vulnerable to disturbance. In Ontario, they are listed as endangered under federal law, and Wasaga Beach has played a critical role in their population recovery. Successful nesting depends on a healthy dune ecosystem, undisturbed beaches, and careful seasonal management – conditions that can be easily disrupted if the lands are developed for tourism.

With decisions about shoreline use, tourism infrastructure, and beach “maintenance” now under municipal authority, activities like beach raking could threaten nesting piping plovers and weaken the dune systems that naturally protect the shoreline from erosion, storms, and climate impacts.

The replacement of Ontario’s Endangered Species Act with the Species Conservation Act narrows the definition of protected habitats, potentially leaving dunes and foraging areas outside nesting sites unprotected. In addition, the Government of Ontario intends to de-list migratory birds all together to “remove duplication for species already receiving federal protections.” To date, the federal government has been reluctant to implement the Species at Risk Act on non-federal lands, which is why complementary provincial legislation was always necessary.

In a 2025 media release, Ontario Nature’s Conservation Policy and Campaigns Director Tony Morris said transferring these areas to the town puts both wildlife and long-standing conservation efforts at risk.

Under municipal ownership, decades-long dune restoration and habitat protections, carried out by Ontario Parks, could disappear. Without the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act in place, Morris says the town would not be required to manage the land for ecological health.

Federal Emergency Action Sought

In response to the loss of provincial protections, Ecojustice has filed a formal request on behalf of Environmental Defence and Ontario Nature, calling on the federal Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Nature Julie Dabrusin, to recommend an Emergency Order under the federal Species at Risk Act.

The emergency order request seeks immediate protection for critical piping plover habitat at Wasaga Beach. With the nesting season approaching, conservation groups are calling for action by March 1, 2026, noting that further delays could have serious consequences for the species’ survival and recovery in Ontario.

What You Can Do

Call or email your MPP, and elected officials from the Town of Wasaga Beach to ask what they are doing to ensure Wasaga Beach remains a natural shoreline that balances tourism and a healthy ecosystem for the species that call it home.

You can also learn about the major projects and initiatives at the Town of Wasaga Beach.

If you are a resident of Wasaga Beach, visit this website to learn how you can get involved.

You can also contact Wasaga Beach’s Mayor and Council to ask them to protect this globally rare ecosystem.

Macey Whiteside is Ontario Nature’s Communications Intern. She is in her final year studying Media and Communications at Western University. Macey brings experience from her past work with Ontario Parks, where she supported conservation efforts at Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, including working with the endangered piping plover population.