Parks Canada has received a large, but so far unquantified amount of public feedback on the proposed Glacier Discovery Walk, and a decision on the project is expected by late January.

The deadline for submitting your opinion on the project, and its recently published environmental assessment, is tomorrow, Dec. 16.

The feedback will be compiled into a report by Parks Canada staff and given to Jasper National Park Supt. Greg Fenton, who will make the ultimate decision about whether the proposal by Brewster Travel Canada proceeds or not.

Fenton said his decision will be primarily based on “quantitative elements” with respect to the project’s expected impact on the environment, but he will also consider public feedback which speaks to more fundamental matters like the purpose of national parks in general.

“The focus is on whether there are impacts – negative or positive impacts – on the environment,” Fenton said. “Having said that, we certainly need to take into account broader public sentiment.”

Much of that sentiment, especially locally in Jasper, has been opposed to the project for a variety of reasons.

Art Jackson has been one of the more outspoken critics of the Glacier Discovery Walk, which calls for a 400-metre interpretative boardwalk with a glass-floored observation platform to be suspended 30 metres out over the Sunwapta Valley.

Jackson spent Tuesday evening last week gathering signatures on a petition against the project, outside of a public forum organized by Brewster at the Jasper Activity Centre. He dismissed the forum as more of an opportunity for Brewster to spread its message in support of the project than for the public to provide feedback on the idea.

“It was just the Brewster dog and pony show,” he said. “They’re going through the hoops that Parks is giving them.”

As for Parks’ own feedback process, Jackson said the federal agency has got it backwards and should have begun by surveying public opinion rather than doing it just before the ultimate decision is made.

“The public probably would have shot it down right from the start and none of this ever would have happened,” he said.

But Michael Hannan, CEO of Brewster Travel Canada, said his company has gone “above and beyond” in its engagement with the public over the Glacier Discovery Walk.

“People have known this is coming for some time,” he said. “It’s been questioned up and down, back and forth.”

Hannan disagreed with suggestions that the public wasn’t given enough time to read and respond to the 169-page environmental assessment, which was prepared for Brewster by Golder Associates and published in late November.

“The standard under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act is two weeks,” he said, noting that in this case people have had more than three weeks to respond.

Many of the project’s opponents have basic “philosophical differences” with Brewster, Hannan added, but he said the company stands by its vision for the Glacier Discovery Walk as providing a means for a wide range of people to enjoy a “rich frontcountry experience” in Jasper.

“We think this is the kind of thing that will stimulate desire for that broad mass of Canadians who live in cities to say, ‘Hey, yeah. Let’s go to a national park,’” he said. “People have a profound desire to protect a national park when they’ve had a profound experience within a national park.”

It’s for that reason that the Association for Mountain Parks Protection and Enjoyment supports the Glacier Discovery Walk, according to executive director Monica Andreeff, who said the project would provide “entry-level experiences” in nature to visiting urbanites.

“You want people to fall in love with nature, to fall in love with the values and mission of national parks and why they were created,” she said. “Is this an appropriate activity? It is for some people: the elderly, people with young children, disabled people.”

Parks Canada continues to receive feedback on the project, Fenton said, including a significant influx of responses this past weekend. He didn’t have specific figures on the number of responses so far.

Jackson questioned what Parks has done with a flood of postcards distributed by the Jasper Environmental Association earlier this year and sent to Ottawa by Canadians opposing the project. He said there were about 7,000 postcards in total and, in his conversation with Parks officials, the federal agency didn’t seem to know where they are.

“How do they account for 7,000 people’s voices against this project?” Jackson said. “That’s a huge question. That’s democracy at its basis.”

Fenton said he is aware of the postcards, but said most of them were sent to federal ministers or other officials. Those and other forms of feedback sent to Ottawa are being redirected to his office, he said.

“We have received some (of the postcards) but we haven’t received 7,000,” Fenton said. “We’re in the process of trying to find out where those are at.”

In the meantime, he said, Parks staff members have already begun compiling the feedback they have received so far and will continue to do so after the Dec. 16 deadline. Fenton said he will then review their report synthesizing the feedback and he expects to make a decision “likely mid to late-January.”

There are three possible decisions Fenton could make.

Firstly, he could approve the project immediately. Fenton said this decision would mean the project was deemed to not cause substantial, irreversible environmental harm or that such harm would be mitigated to a point that makes it acceptable. If that happens, Brewster would then have to enter into specific lease negotiations with Parks Canada and obtain any necessary permits before proceeding with construction of the Glacier Discovery Walk.

Secondly, Fenton could reject the proposal. He said this would mean the project’s environmental impacts were deemed to be unacceptable.

And thirdly, Fenton could go back to Brewster and ask for additional information. He said this could happen “either due to our own concerns or some raised from the public.”

Feedback on the Glacier Discovery Walk’s environmental assessment will continue to be accepted until tomorrow. Comments can be directed by email to jasper.superintendent@pc.gc.ca or by mail to Superintendent, Jasper National Park, Box 10, Jasper, AB T0E 1E0.

The environmental assessment can be downloaded at glacierdiscoverywalk.com/downloads.