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Dundas EcoPark gets boost from Ottawa
(Hamilton Spectator, Jan 23, 2013)

An ambitious plan to create one of Canada’s largest urban parks has received a financial shot in the arm.

Ottawa announced a $502,274 contribution Wednesday to the $5-million fundraising campaign by the Hamilton Conservation Authority to establish the Dundas EcoPark Project.

The contribution was presented to vice-chair Jim Howlett at the HCA’s Ancaster headquarters by Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale MP David Sweet.

The money comes from the Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund and is the first major contribution to the fundraising campaign. The HCA applied to the fund for assistance.

“That’s awesome,” Howlett said of the contribution. “That’s 10 per cent of the total fundraising project right there.”

The funds will go toward improvements at the former site of the Ben Veldhuis greenhouse operation on King Street East, along the old Desjardins Canal.

The HCA bought the site and cleared it of its 20 greenhouses in 2010 for a park. Veldhuis was famous for growing cacti and gave Dundas the nickname, Cactus Capital of Canada.

The Dundas EcoPark concept connects more than 2,500 hectares of natural land between Cootes Paradise and the Niagara Escarpment. The area is home to more than a quarter of Canada’s native plants and a variety of endangered and threatened species.

The HCA is seeking about $2 million for land acquisition, $2 million for restoration of the canal and $1 million for wetland preservation and trail development.

“It’s a good project and it’s finally going to clean up that area along the Desjardins,” said Sweet. “I joked today that the Canada geese around there will finally have a home.”