If you love East Sooke Park, please take a look at this application for a commercial venture and submit a comment expressing your opposition to the proposed plan.
The proposed plan indicates intention to build a multi-use site revolving around outdoor education, wilderness survival, and bushcraft training. While the idea may be interesting, the plan poses significant risk to the sustenance of the region, as the plan contains concerning information regarding construction timelines. To elaborate, the proposed plan indicates that construction would span several years, which means that the preserved land in which wildlife, marine life, and microorganisms live would be continuously disrupted and destroyed.
Furthermore, the application is to lease 4.87 hectares of the land, indicating that a vast area of East Sooke Park would be permanently destroyed for a temporary purpose. In addition, this area would no longer be available for public park usage.
In my opinion, I find this proposed plan to be rooted in corporate greed and disregard for nature. While the applicant, “One With Nature Corp” attests that their business offers outdoor education and survival skills, the opportunity comes at a price – natural land being disrupted for something artificial. This business venture would be monetizing off the disruption of land, for the purpose of teaching about it – quite the paradox.
All submitted comments are relayed to the decision-maker. If there is a sufficient amount of negative responses to this application, perhaps there is a chance that East Sooke Park can remain a sanctuary that many of us love and cherish.
Hello,
I respectfully ask that you not privatize/monetize/corporatize any portion of East Sooke Park, temporarily or permanently.
First and foremost because it is the one and only home of a tremendous number of wild beings from all of the kingdoms. That matters, they matter. Secondly, it is a PUBLIC good, paid for by taxpayers.
Peaceful, lawful, respectful-to-nature access to and presence within such an area must not be fettered, impacted or trumped by someone else’s singular and private profit. Such a venture should be sprung from private land as any other commercial venture would be. To allow anyone or any business to disproportionately profit from a public good would make it very unfair and also difficult to justify saying no to other requests – where does the line get drawn?
More than ever, it is critical to our well-being and the planet’s, that we maintain such protected areas and allow respectful access to them. If we forget what it is like to feel and be in proper nature, our baseline will continue to shift until there is nothing of nature left, including ourselves. This is not drama, this is certainty, biological fact.
Please do not permit this commercial project, regardless of how “beneficial” it promotes itself as being.
Sincerely,
Tanya
Whoops! Please delete from your comments – that was supposed to be my letter for the petition – doh!
East Sooke Park is a public space, not for profit. The damage done would leave long lasting scars. Leave this wildlife park alone.