Guelph urban park group hopes petition gets positive response from feds

A petition that is calling for the construction of a national urban park in Guelph, Ont., has made its way to Ottawa.

Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield introduced the petition in the House of Commons on Jan. 31. The petition calls on the federal government to direct Parks Canada to create an urban park at the former Guelph Correctional Centre.

Urban Park Guelph initiated the online petition. By Jan. 18, the petition garnered 3,191 signatures.

“That would fill the River Run Centre four times over,” said Urban Park Guelph spokesperson P Brian Skerrett. “It was a lot more than anticipated.”

Skerrett pointed out that a similar petition for an urban park in Windsor had just over 700 signatures.

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The federal government has 45 days to respond to the petition and Skerrett hopes the group receives a positive response.

In the meantime, work continues behind the scenes at Urban Park Guelph. In addition to the petition, there have been a number of organizations giving their endorsement for the project.

“We’re generating more public support, we’re getting more stories,” Skerrett said.

One of the those stories is from a former inmate at the facility who is also throwing his support for the project. Cliff Summers, president of the group Native Sons, called the facility “a beacon for healing and culture,” and believes turning it into a national park would be “poignant and significant.”

“That speaks volumes to me,” Skerrett said. “When you got inmates saying, ‘This place where we were incarcerated is special for these reasons,’ that’s amazing.”

The former correctional facility property off York Road has over 108 hectares of land with most of that space, according to Skerrett, disappearing over the last 20 years due to human settlement.

“It is ecologically special, it is socially special, it is historically special,” he said. “We got an opportunity to tie all those elements together, and it is really creating something that is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Global News also reached out to Parks Canada. They replied back to us via email on Feb. 26 saying staff are currently working on a formal response to the petition and would not be able to provide a comment at this time.