Posted on 04/03/2009, 12:53 pm, by mySteinbach

Underprivileged youth will have the chance to learn life-long leadership skills in a unique wilderness environment in Whiteshell Provincial Park through a proposed $10-million venture between the Tim Horton Children’s Foundation and the Manitoba government, Conservation Minister Stan Struthers and Tim Horton Children’s Foundation vice-president Dave Newnham announced.
 
While announcing the plans for a foundation camp to be located near Meditation Lake in the Whiteshell, the minister also marked the end of commercial logging in provincial parks.
 
“This week marks a new era for Manitoba parks,” Struthers said.  “We saw both the end of commercial logging in parks and now also have an opportunity to send children to camp who might otherwise not have a chance to enjoy Manitoba’s great outdoors.”
 
“Our vision is to develop a generation of conservationists by giving them an appreciation of the incredible wilderness of Whiteshell Provincial Park,” said Newnham. “We are committed to establishing a first-class facility, as environmentally responsible as possible, that Manitobans will be proud of.  The foundation looks forward to working with the Manitoba government, local community and First Nations as part of the public consultation process.”
 
The proposed facility would host youth aged 13 to 17 in an innovative youth leadership summer program and would be available year-round to Manitoba school children and organizations catering to underprivileged youth for various educational and environmental programs.  The plans include sleeping facilities to accommodate 260 young people, a dining hall and several temporary seasonal yurt enclosures.
 
The Tim Horton Children’s Foundation is a non-profit, charitable organization providing opportunities for children to develop into positive, contributing members of their communities.  It operates six camps in Canada and the U.S. and has provided unique outdoor experiences to more than 120,000 economically disadvantaged children in the past 35 years, at no cost to their families.
 
The province announced in November of last year that the Forest Act would be amended to ban commercial logging in 80 of 81 provincial parks, bringing an end to large-scale commercial operations in Whiteshell, Nopiming, Clearwater Lake and Grass River provincial parks.
 
Open houses on the proposal will be held on April 30 in Winnipeg and on May 2 in Whiteshell Provincial Park.