THE CITY DIDN’T WIN — WE ALL LOST
More pavement, pollution is going to destroy Windsor’s natural jewel
“We won,” city lawyer Wira Vendresco declared when the Ontario Municipal Board dismissed Save Ojibway’s appeal.
We didn’t win, Ms. Vendresco. We lost, all of us — the small, fragile but incredibly rich and diverse land, the threatened and endangered species that live on it, the city that needs it.
Within months, design and construction could start on a 450,000-square-foot big box shopping centre next to Ojibway Park, across the road from the Ojibway Prairie Provincial Nature Reserve, practically in the middle of the five remnants that make up the Ojibway Prairie Complex, the largest protected native prairie left in Ontario, one of the few bits still functioning as an ecosystem, a necklace of green in a degraded landscape.
More pavement, more traffic, more noise, pollution, garbage and sprawl.
All in the middle of wetlands, forest, savannah and prairie, more rare and endangered plants and animals than anywhere in Ontario, some found nowhere else in Canada. Where the willow leaf aster and dense blazing star grow, where the Eastern foxsnake and Butler’s garter snake live. The best population in the world of eastern foxsnake lives here, in Windsor and Essex County.
And these are only some of the ones we know. We find more regularly, like the seven spiders and two earthworms never recorded in Canada but found here last year.
Ojibway is a big thing for scientists. But, incredibly, we’re going to build yet more big box stores there.
Imagine what we could do. Imagine a ribbon of green from the Spring Garden Natural Area to Ojibway Shores, the last stretch of natural shore on the Canadian side of the Detroit River. Imagine one of the first national urban parks in Canada — in Windsor, of all places. A gem and an oasis that would propel us into a new light, that would be a game-changer. It would be a heck of a first impression coming off the new bridge.
We have among the least natural area in Ontario. Our landscape is among the most degraded. We are one of the most polluted cities in Canada. We live with thousands of diesel-spewing trucks a day on the busiest commercial border crossing in North America. We need Ojibway. But that patchwork will be squeezed by the new bridge, the Windsor Port Authority and now more big box stores to buy more stuff we don’t need.
On the same day the OMB released its decision, city council acknowledged spending $400,000 for 500 rooms at Caesars Windsor for the FINA swimming championships next year. The athletes and officials will come. Then they’ll go.
Ojibway will last forever, if we care for it.
When visitors come, what will they see?
Will they exclaim, “Look! Windsor has a new Walmart!”
Will they snap photos of a new Home Depot?
Will they tell others about a new Dollar Store? They could marvel at Ojibway. Also on the same day, ironically, council voted to hire 2.5 more staff to try to attract investment, jobs and people to Windsor.
We have to do something, council agreed, staring at 10 per cent unemployment.
Windsor’s top priority in its 20-year plan is jobs. The second is the city’s image. They’re connected.
But instead of protecting and enhancing Ojibway, we’re building big box stores next to it, at the same time hollowing out the core, where empty plazas and storefronts dot the streets. Some day, the only tall grass left here could be what’s growing in vacant lots. What’s wrong with our leaders? Why can’t they see this?
Nancy Pancheshan, Save Ojibway and the 13,000 people who signed their petition are the only ones who can claim victory here. They stood up to the city, the province and a multimilliondollar company and fought an epic eight-year battle to protect Ojibway. They showed us what we have, told us how important it is and tried to shake us out of our ignorance.
At least they tried. They didn’t just let it go, like the city, claiming a shopping centre is better than a subdivision.
Sadly, it’s not enough.