The proposal to construct a 66-room hotel at Maligne Lake violates Parks Canada’s policies and threatens to open the park to further development, according to a new report from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
In its sixth annual report on the state of Canada’s parks, the non-profit group highlights Maligne Tours’ proposal to develop heritage-style accommodations at the iconic lake as being “out of step with policy, science and public opinion.”
The policy CPAWS refers to is the 2007 outlying commercial accommodations policy, which was created to prohibit new commercial accommodations outside park townsites.
“This policy was put in place specifically to limit commercial developments in the parks,” said Alison Woodley, the national parks program director for CPAWS. “To allow a hotel to proceed would violate that policy and it would make it very difficult for [Parks] to adhere to the policy with all of the other [outlying] operators. If Parks violates it for Maligne Tours, there’s a real concern that it could open the floodgates for further commercial development in the Rocky Mountain national parks.”
Although this argument isn’t new—it’s one that’s spread widely since the proposal was announced last year—CPAWS hopes the report’s recommendation to reject the project will be taken seriously by Parks as it makes its decision on whether or not to proceed with the approval process.
“There’s a clear black and white policy statement around this, so we’re certainly hopeful that they will [take our recommendation seriously.]”
Parks was to announce its decision on the Maligne Tours proposal in May, but no decisions have been made to date. The Fitzhugh requested an interview with a local Parks representative to discuss CPAWS’ report and the status of the proposal this week, but that request was shuffled to a media relations officer at the national Parks office, who responded with a pre-approved statement that failed to mention Maligne Tours or Jasper National Park.
Rather, her email assured that the “government is taking significant action and making record investments to expand and protect our national parks,” and carried on to list some of its efforts on Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii and in Ontario and the Northwest Territories.
“We will continue to support and invest in our national parks so that Canadians can enjoy our country’s natural heritage,” states the email.
The Maligne Tours proposal is just one example of “bad news for parks” highlighted in CPAWS’ annual report.
Within Jasper National Park it also mentions the opening of the Glacier Skywalk—a project that CPAWS raised alarm about in its 2012 report. At the time, it warned of the attraction’s potential impact on wildlife, its inconsistency with Parks policies and its potential to set a precedent for future commercial development.
Woodley said it seems that precedent has been set.
“The hotel seems to be the next in a series of proposals that are going ahead in spite of all of the concerns that are being raised,” she said, referring to public opposition to both the Skywalk and the Maligne Tours proposal.
Although there have been two high profile proposals in Jasper in the last two years, Woodley noted that it’s not just in JNP that Parks is prioritizing commercial interests—it’s happening across the country.
“This is shortsighted,” she said. “There’s overwhelming evidence that well protected and well designed parks are great for the environment and they’re also great for people.
“So we’re really calling on governments overall to recognize the true value of parks ... and to really shift this trend of prioritizing industrial and commercial interests.
“There needs to be real caution if we are going to be in a place where our grandchildren can see caribou in Jasper or grizzly bears in Banff: we need to manage our parks very carefully and cautiously so we pass them on to future generations unimpaired.”
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
