Ramsar designation report release recommended by Region committee
Niagara Parks Commission blamed for stalled Niagara River designation efforts
Niagara Region Chair Jim Bradley blames “cold feet” at Niagara Parks Commission for helping stall a Ramsar designation for the Niagara River, as members of a regional committee call for the public release of a report on the legal implications of such a designation.
“At one time there was a lot of momentum for this designation,” Bradley said during Wednesday’s planning and economic development committee meeting.
He said efforts that began more than seven years ago to designate the waterway under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance were most recently led by the parks commission.
“Unfortunately, with the change of composition of the Niagara Parks Commission, it appears that they now have cold feet and they’re not prepared to be the ones who will lead the charge on this designation which they were initially,” Bradley said.
Members the Region’s planning and economic development committee voted to support the Ramsar designation on Sept. 9, 2020, but a day later parks commission board members voted against acting as the lead nominator for the designation, and stepped down from participating in the steering committee.
Regional councillors subsequently voted to defer a decision on the planning committee’s support for the initiative pending an external legal review.
In a Feb. 12 letter to the Region, Jocelyn Baker, Canadian co-chair of the Niagara River Ramsar Binational Steering Committee, and Jajean Roseburney from the U.S. side asked it to make that legal review publicly available.
Bradley said Ramsar designations are “rather benign.”
Although a Ramsar designation — named for the Iranian city where the treaty was signed in 1971 — carries no regulatory authority, it does promote community pride and eco-tourism opportunities.
A designation of the Niagara River would put it on a list of other designated locations such as the Florida Everglades and Galápagos Islands.
“Usually when someone is bringing something like this to our attention and wanting an endorsement they’re talking about how meaningful and instrumental it would be.
“In this case, they were saying … it’s largely symbolic,” Bradley said.
After moving in-camera to review the document and discuss issues with certified environmental law specialist Jacquelyn Stevens, as well as the region’s lawyer Donna Gibbs, committee members voted unanimously to recommend the report be publicly released — subject to the approval of regional council on Feb. 25.
Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop said there are other bodies that have received legal opinions with respect to Ramsar designations, and some of those reports have been made available to the public.
Bradley, too, said he’d support releasing the report.
“We have received some interesting correspondence and I think it’s good that the public is aware of it, because this is a significant issue,” he said.
“We Canadians often want to look down our nose at the Americans when it comes to environmental issues. The people on the American side have already endorsed this.”
In the years since efforts began towards the Ramsar designation, Bradley said it seems to have lost momentum.
“I know there are some people who might be afraid that this might have something to do with wetlands that would somehow influence whether a proposal could be approved or not, but this is largely saying that a Ramsar designation is a good faith designation to maintain the ecological character of a site in the context of its wider use.”