A map of the land on the Windsor, Ontario side of the Detroit River that has been relinquished by the Windsor Port Authority to help create a national urban park/Courtesy of the Windsor Port Authority

A proposed national urban park in Windsor is one step closer to reality.

The Windsor Port Authority has relinquished title to two key parcels of land worth about $4 million ($2.93 million USD) in Ojibway Shores to Parks Canada that will become part of the proposed Ojibway National Urban Park. The port will also build a fish habitat on the waterfront to protect the ecological significance of this Ontario shoreline in the Windsor-Detroit area.

This will now consolidate the site so that Parks Canada can proceed with a planned land transfer with Transport Canada.

“Port Windsor has held title to these two parcels for more than 20 years, but it’s time to move forward with preservation,” Port Windsor president and CEO Steve Salmons said in a news release. “The port has always been responsive to community needs, and the community clearly wants to see these lands preserved as a natural heritage area.”

Federal Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra called the transfer “a massive step forward” towards the final creation of Ojibway National Urban Park.

Irek Kusmierczyk, the Member of Parliament for Windsor-Tecumseh, said Port Windsor has always championed the preservation of the Ojibway lands as a natural heritage area. “I believe this land consolidation, and fish habitat development, will not only achieve that objective, but set the table for a significant announcement in the coming weeks,” he hinted in a news release. On Facebook, he called the move "a victory for conservation and all who fought so hard for so long.”

The Ojibway Shores land was originally earmarked for industrial port terminal development/Windsor Port Authority

Ojibway Shores was obtained by Windsor Port Authority (then the Windsor Harbour Commission) in the 1990s through a land swap with the City of Windsor. The city obtained Rendezvous Shores for residential development, and offered Ojibway for future industrial port terminal development, including offering municipal services and road development. In that transfer, the Crown obtained three parcels of Ojibway Shores, and the port authority directly purchased the remaining two.

In August 2021, Parks Canada launched a program to support the creation of a network of national urban parks that will contribute to conservation goals, provide access to nature for major population centres, and contribute to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Parks Canada and the City of Windsor have signed a statement of collaboration indicating their intent to work together for the public good by conducting a dialogue around the feasibility of the potential designation of a national urban park. 

Windsor West New Democrat MP Brian Masse’s private members’ bill to establish the park — Bill C-248 — is set for third reading in parliament on April 19. If it passes, it moves on to the Senate for review. The proposed park would include Ojibway Park, Spring Garden Natural Area, Black Oak Heritage Park, the Tallgrass Prairie Park, Ojibway Prairie Provincial Nature Reserve and Ojibway Shores.

Port Windsor is Ontario’s third largest port. It receives more than 600 ships each year, delivering aggregate, salt, steel and grain to Windsor-Essex, and ports across the Great Lakes, and into Europe. It also hosts Ontario’s largest ship fueling depot. A federal corporation under the Canada Marine Act (1999), it is one of 17 national ports established to promote the growth, competitiveness and prosperity of Canada's economy.