More forests, wetlands and other critical ecosystems in southern Ontario will be protected from development through a $10 million fund.
The province is working with various conservation groups that will match Ontario's $5 million investment, announced yesterday.
The money will be used to establish conservation agreements on private lands or buy land outright to keep it from being paved over, protect species at risk like the Loggerhead Shrike, a predatory songbird, and expand provincial parks.
Areas under consideration include Long Point, Pelee Island and the Oak Ridges Moraine's Rice Lake Plains.
Spending money to protect land is vital in southern Ontario where development pressures are enormous and the government owns just 3 per cent of the land, Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay said.
About "97 per cent of the land in southern Ontario, basically, is privately owned yet that's where a lot of the pressures are. That's where most of our endangered species are, that's where most habitat is at risk because of development," he said.
"In securing these lands we will be protecting essential habitat for plants and wildlife, helping reverse loss of precious green space and contributing to a healthier and diverse natural environment for future generations," he said.
Last year, working with its partners the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Ducks Unlimited and the Ontario Land Trust Alliance, the government's funding of $3.5 million translated into 1,500 hectares of protected land. That's four and a half times the size of the Toronto Islands.
That land has a real value of more than $15 million, Ramsay said, adding that he has hopes for even more success from this year's increased funding. But New Democrat MPP Paul Ferreira dismissed yesterday's announcement as insufficient.
"The government is protecting small chunks of land, but if there was a wholehearted effort they in fact would be protecting much larger chunks of land," Ferreira said.
There are also concerns about the focus on preserving land in southern Ontario, he said.
"A better job needs to be done to protect the boreal forest in northern Ontario, which is home to a number of endangered species."
