Hundreds of letters protesting a children’s camp tentatively slated for Whiteshell Provincial Park are to be presented to the Doer government today.

The Wilderness Committee said in a release it’s delivering 600 letters, collected over the last four weeks, asking Premier Gary Doer to stop the Meditation Lake development.

The Wilderness Committee, a local environmental group, is lobbying the province to build the Tim Hortons'-run camp at another location. It says building the camp at Meditation Lake would ruin previously untouched wilderness and that the lake itself is not conducive for a children’s camp because of algae blooms.

The province has said it worked with Tim Hortons' for a year to find the site and that Meditation Lake was the best location. The camp is to open next year.

The Wilderness Committee is calling for three changes: First, Meditation Lake and nearby Horseshoe Lake must be reclassified as a backcountry region, permanently protecting the area. Second, extensive air and water research sampling must be done at Meditation Lake, Horseshoe Lake, and Swampy Lake, to better understand the development of toxic algae blooms. Third, new policy must be written into The Provincial Parks Act requiring public announcement before development starts in all provincial parks.