With wedding season in full swing, Parks Canada is under fire for being too lenient when it comes to enforcing ceremony guidelines designed to protect the ecological integrity of Jasper National Park.
Currently there is no formal approval process or permission required to hold a wedding ceremony in a public area and Parks does not keep track of weddings taking place in the park.
Instead, it requests wedding ceremonies comply with 12 guidelines that can be found on its website.
These guidelines include a “recommendation” that no more than 25 guests attend a ceremony at a time and there must not be any “significant” impact on the park’s natural and cultural resources, such as picking flowers or setting up chairs for the ceremony (a few folding chairs are allowed for the elderly or the infirm).
Parks’ loosely worded guidelines have led to frustration for at least one bride who followed the guidelines only to witness a nearby wedding ceremony blatantly disregard the rules on the same day.
“We chose to get married at Pyramid Lake and because we understand the environmental impact of outdoor events, we followed the rules,” said Ana Botelho Clark, who grew up in Jasper and now lives in Calgary.
“Parks has these guidelines and sometimes you question them, but in this case we thought this is what it takes,” she said.
During her ceremony at Pyramid Beach last fall, the couple noticed another wedding nearby using at least 50 chairs on the beach, violating two of the guidelines.
“I’m a professional planner and I would never go beyond any type of regulation or restriction because I was brought up in a national park,” she said. “I don’t believe in polluting the environment. I don’t believe in disturbing our nature, but the bottom line is Parks Canada could care less.”
Parks confirmed there is no formal approval process to hold a wedding in the park.
“Though no approval process or permission is required to hold a wedding ceremony at a public area in the park, Parks Canada expects persons interested in holding a ceremony to follow the guidelines found on the park’s website,” stated Cathy Jenkins, the municipal and realty manager for Jasper National Park, in a emailed statement.
“When Parks Canada is made aware that these guidelines were not followed, we contact the parties involved to make them aware of the guidelines as it is important that this information is widely known and shared.”
Marie Golka, one of three local wedding commissioners in Jasper, blamed the probem on people coming from outside of the park.
“I do believe that the local commissioners adhere to the rules,” said Golka. “It’s the outside people coming in and having a wedding ceremony that don’t seem to adhere to anything.”
She said Parks should require couples to register their weddings in order to keep tabs on what is happening in the park.
“I feel as though there should be some enforcement as far as people coming in,” said Golka.
“If there was a fee attached that would certainly make people be a little more cognizant of the fact there are these rules.”
She said sometimes there are up to 10 brides lining up at Pyramid Island to get married in a single day.
For Botelho Clark, there is little she can do now, but she hopes Parks will take her concern seriously.
“The fact is something needs to be done about it.”
Paul Clarke
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