FEDELI CALLS FOR LAKE NIPISSING RESTOCKING
June 3, 2015QUEEN’S PARK – Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli took aim at the Wynne government’s
hypocritical stance on walleye restocking in Lake Nipissing in a Members’ Statement this
afternoon in the Ontario Legislature, and demanded that stakeholders be allowed to
continue to pursue restocking efforts.
The text of Fedeli’s statement is as follows:
Speaker, this week, the Lake Nipissing Stakeholders wrote directly to the Premier out
of desperation and frustration. They’re at a loss to understand how the Ministry of
Natural Resources and Forestry turned down their request to continue to restock
Lake Nipissing as they’ve done for years to reverse decline of the walleye population.
The Ministry is entrenched in its position on Lake Nipissing, yet on its website, they boast
the fact that they help stock 1,200 other water bodies in Ontario each and every year. The
refusal to allow the stakeholders – at their own expense – to augment stocking efforts
proves that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing at the Ministry.
Lake Nipissing is one of the most ecologically and economically important lakes in
Northeastern Ontario. But instead of working with partners to find solutions, the Ministry
just digs in its heels.
The stakeholders’ petition is now available for constituents to sign in my office and on my
website. The Premier needs to act and the Minister needs to start asking his staff some
hard questions. They should allow the stakeholders to continue to restock, again at their
own expense as they always have, while submitting the Ministry’s data and conclusions
for a third-party scientific review to explain how it’s acceptable to stock 1,200 other
Ontario water bodies, but not Lake Nipissing. Thank you.
Video of Fedeli’s statement can be found online here: http://youtu.be/5tLVSdXB3Q0
Video of Fedeli reading the petition can be found online here: http://youtu.be/iPG5Os6IWsk
A copy of the petition can be found online here: http://www.fedeli.com/media/mpp/2015/LNSA_petition.pdf
For more information, or to arrange an interview, contact:
Clint Thomas
Executive Assistant
(416) 325-3434 or (416) 710-1752