Pressure is mounting on the federal government to better protect the Rouge National Urban Park lands in order to get the massive preserve back on track.

As reported by the Star on Wednesday, the Ontario government is threatening to withhold 5,400 acres of provincially controlled land from the proposed park over environmental concerns.

Infrastructure Minister Brad Duguid wrote federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq on Tuesday to warn that Ottawa’s legislation creating the urban park does not provide enough ecological protections.

“If . . . amendments are not made, I cannot support recommending steps to enable the contribution of 5,400 acres for the simple reason that I feel this land will be better protected if it remains with the province of Ontario,” said Duguid.

Aglukkaq’s office argued the bill tabled in June goes far enough and accused Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government of having suddenly reneged on a “promise to protect the Rouge watershed made in a signed memorandum of understanding in 2013, by insisting on amendments that would threaten to evict Toronto’s urban farmers.”

“Our legislation to protect this urban area will strengthen environmental protections over what exists currently,” spokesman Shane Buckingham said in Ottawa.

“The Rouge National Urban Park Act provides these additional protections for the area, while ensuring that farmers can continue to work the land and implement best farming practices.”

But environmentalists are rallying behind Duguid.

In a collective statement, Environmental Defence, the David Suzuki Foundation, Sierra Club Canada, Ontario Nature, Friends of the Rouge Watershed, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Wildlands League, Nature Canada, and the Save the Oak Ridges Moraine Coalition applauded the province’s move.

“The Ontario government did the right thing (Tuesday) by deciding not to transfer its substantial Rouge Park lands to Parks Canada until the federal legislation and management plan for Rouge Park are significantly strengthened,” the environmentalists said.

That’s because “the draft federal legislation does not prioritize ecological integrity in park management and it does not honour a January 2013 memorandum of agreement signed between Parks Canada and the Ontario government requiring written park policies that ‘meet or exceed provincial policies.’ ”

At issue is a national park that Ottawa says will be expanded from the existing 40-square-kilometre Rouge Park in Toronto and Markham to a 58-square-kilometre park, though some environmentalists say it will actually be closer to 47 square kilometres when assembled.

Queen’s Park controls about two-thirds of the land, with Ottawa owning the remaining third and the cities of Toronto and Markham holding small parcels.

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