AR-News: (CA) Cormorant shooting begins today

[Barry Kent MacKay]

Media Advisory
Peaceful Parks Coalition

Toronto, May 6, 2004:  Dalton McGuinty will begin shooting 6000
double-crested cormorants at High Bluff Island at Presqu'ile Provincial Park
starting today.

For those individuals interested in witnessing this atrocity, please contact
the Peaceful Parks Coalition at 416.537.3212 or email ppc at peacefulparks.org

Killing 6000 cormorants to protect the vegetation on High Bluff Island sets
a terrible precedent - that wildlife limited by nesting sites or habitat has
less value than common and abundant vegetation.  With this logic, any
species could be targeted.  By stating the impact is devastating, as
McGunity has done, gives the cormorant no escape because the impact is
natural and cannot be avoided. It is also ecologically beneficial.

It is fully anticipated, McGuinty will turn his guns next to East Sister
Island, another provincial park where cormorants nest on Lake Erie, and the
islands near Kingston, Ontario.

-30-

Notes to the Editor:

A request to have this proposal reviewed for a full environmental assessment
(EA) was rejected early yesterday morning, May 5, 2004.  The decision to
move ahead with the shooting was posted on the Environmental Bill of Rights
Registry (EBR) yesterday afternoon, May 5, 2004.  It takes approximately 7
working days to write and translate into french a posting on the EBR,
according to government sources.  Therefore the decision to shoot 6000
cormorants was made long ago, and prior to public statements by Natural
Resources Minister David Ramsay that he was considering all comments and the
request for an environmental review.

A review of the file at the Ministry of Environment, Approvals and
Assessment Branch, showed the request for a full EA was not properly
reviewed suggesting political interfere from McGuinty's office. This
undermines a legitimate public process.  (It is common practice to seek
input from third party government agencies when assessing a request for a
full EA- this did not happen with this request)

Conditions imposed by the Approvals and Assessment Branch are feeble.  The
executive committee entrusted to review the shooting at Presqu'ile is
comprised of Ministry of Natural Resources staff and one representative from
the Canadian Wildlife Service.

A request by the Peaceful Parks Coalition to review the "science" behind
Ramsay's decision was flatly denied, and redirected to the Freedom of
Information Act, by his executive assistant, Kevin McGuire.

Contacts
AnnaMaria Valastro, Peaceful Parks Coalition 416.537.3212
Kevin Plautz, Project Manager, Approvals and Assessment Branch 416.314.7184
Kevin McGuire, Executive Assistant to Minister David Ramsay, 416.314.2210

Peaceful Parks Coalition
P.O. Box 326, Station B
Toronto, Ontario M5T 2W2
416.537.3212
www.peacefulparks.org
ppc at peacefulparks.org