Cansfield intrigued with area stewardship council

Greater Nipissing Stewardship Council
News Release

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The Greater Nipissing Stewardship Council (GNSC) met with Ontario’s Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield on Friday, as part of the Minister’s tour of the ministry’s district office in North Bay.

The meeting provided the Council, one of 43 such Stewardship Councils across the province, with the opportunity to brief the Minister on GNSC projects that have been carried out since its original inception, as well as those projects and new initiatives that are currently underway or in the planning stages.

Minister Cansfield was quite intrigued by many of the projects, such as the Lake Nipissing “Primary School Educational Unit”, currently being used by local Grade 2 teachers, and the “Adopt a Sturgeon” program successfully carried out in 2005 and again in 2006. As part of an MNR study, individuals made donations of $100 each to adopt a tagged sturgeon, with their donation going towards future management efforts.

“All these projects clearly demonstrate local people getting involved in local projects right in their own communities,” Cansfield said.

The Minister was impressed in learning about GNSC’s recently expanded mandate, both in terms of the wide range of natural resource projects being taken on and the coverage area – which now covers an area larger than Algonquin Provincial Park.

Originally founded in 1999 as the Lake Nipissing Stewardship Council, the GNSC is a non-profit charitable corporation that partners with similar-minded groups, non-governmental organizations, government agencies and associations to implement environmental programs; provide information related to conservation and natural resource sustainability; and to increase awareness of the ecosystem of the greater Nipissing area. The Council relies upon a strong core of volunteers from member organizations to implement many of its initiatives.

Monique Smith, Nipissing MPP and Minister of Revenue, along with Charlie Lauer, MNR’S Deputy Minister, also participated in the meeting.

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