For one year, there have been secret negotiations between the Tim Horton Children's Foundation and the Manitoba government about a youth camp development at Meditation Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park. For decades, Meditation Lake has been managed by Manitoba Conservation as a remote access area, and is only accessible by a one-kilometer hike in. It is one of only a handful of remote hiking and boating destinations in Whiteshell Provincial park, and is being used by a surprisingly large number of people. The one-kilometer hike serves as a natural crowd control mechanism, limiting the human impact in the region. Meditation Lake is also the access route to renowned backcountry lakes like Horseshoe and Side Saddle Lakes.

The camp will be a private facility with beds for over 300 people, putting a great strain on the local area. People will no longer be able to access the shore of Meditation Lake that many people have been visiting for over 40 year.

Meditation Lake is naturally high in nutrients and has no water flowing through it, which causes regular algae blooms to occur. In the summer of 2008, a toxic algae bloom is thought to have caused the death of thousands of clams and fish in the lake. A type of algae known as cyanobacteria was found in Meditation Lake, and is known to cause toxic algae blooms that are dangerous to people and aquatic life. Scientists do not know when the algae might become toxic again.

On March 23, a concerned citizen reported that the roadway for the proposed camp had already been bulldozed through the forest. Conservation Minister Struthers refuted this on March 25, saying there was no road yet. On April 30, the day public information open houses began, the Wilderness Committee accompanied a CBC news crew as they drove their vehicle down a freshly gravelled path to the shore of Meditation Lake.