Reham Al Azem | Special to the Fitzhugh
Alberta's leader of the Opposition, Rachel Notley, has launched a campaign and is calling on Albertans to sign an online petition to save provincial parks.
The campaign aims to thwart the UCP government’s policy to close or sell off 184 provincial parks, recreation areas and protected spaces across the province.
Notley said certain protected areas could be handed to third parties and non-profits like municipalities, but if the government can’t find people to do that, the parks could just be closed, the land eventually stripped of its protection and treated as Crown land that could be exploited by industrial companies.
“The key is that this land previously was not used for that and we are losing the natural spaces and for generations to come,” Notley said.
Notley said she is concerned that this plan could negatively affect Jasper National Park and its residents.
She said: “Many people in Jasper understand our environment well enough to know that once you engage in major disruption of the landscapes, it could be generations before you ever get what you have lost back, so we must stop it, our legacy is at stake.”
Notley added that protecting species and ecosystems is not something that recognizes park boundaries, so this plan could easily have consequences to the national park itself.
She said ecosystems and biodiversity could be hurt in the national parks even though the federal land within those boundaries remains protected.
Not to mention the impact on Jasper services and campsites by the closure of the local provincial parks.
“There is no question that it would increase pressure on the national park because there will be fewer places for people to enjoy the outdoors outside of the national parks,” Notley said.
Notley added that the reduction and unavailability of campsites could cause a drop in tourism in Alberta and, as a result, affect small businesses in Jasper.
“The reality is that if we don’t have access to enough camping and outdoor activity places, recreational places, then international tourists and out of province tourists would just skip over Alberta because they can't find a place for themselves here,” Notley said.
From the UCP’s point of view, this plan will boost the economy as it will save $5 million in the 2020-21 budget which equates to about $1.13 per Albertan per year.
But Notley says this is not really true, because divesting and deregulating these areas comes with a cost.
“In the long term, it’s not really helping anybody,” she said.
And the majority of Albertans do not support the provincial parks cut according to The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS). A recent public opinion survey conducted by CPAWS depicts that almost seven in ten Albertans oppose the closure or removal of these parks from the parks system.
Notley launched a petition for her Don't Go Breaking My Parks campaign on July 17, and gained 11,000 signatures in less than a week. She urges Jasper residents to join her mission, by going to www.dontgobreakingmyparks.ca to sign the petition and get stickers to promote the campaign.
“We need to increase that [number] substantially and demand that Albertans have a right to have their voice heard,” she said, adding that more people in Jasper can use that platform to get the word out to protect their parks.
Martin Long (UCP), MLA for West Yellowhead, and his office did not respond to multiple requests for interview.
Background information:
The change to the 184 provincial parks, called optimizing Alberta's parks impacts about 16,000 hectares of land.
Full Site Closures: 10 parks (4,432 hectares) will be fully closed where the entire site will be closed to public access like Sulphur Lake Provincial Recreation Area, Greene Valley Provincial Park and Crow Lake Provincial Park, etc.
Partial Site Closures: 10 parks will be partially closed where the remaining park areas will be open to public access, but un-serviced like Bow Valley Provincial Park, Barrier Lake Visitor Information Centre, etc.
Removing: 164 parks (11,605 hectares) will be removed from the system and proposed for partnerships which equals to 0.3% of current park system, like Red Lodge Provincial Park, Prairie Creek Group Camp Provincial Recreation, Prairie Creek Provincial Recreation Area, Kakwa River Provincial Recreation Area, Pembina Forks Provincial Recreation Area, etc.
According to Alberta Parks, there will be service fee increases that accompany the new changes like an increase of $3 on the base camping rate at most Alberta Parks campgrounds, a $1 increase for each applicable service fee related to power, water, sewers and showers, and a $10 increase for sites that were at the low end of the fee range charged for comfort camping and group camping. This will only affect those sites that were at the low end of the fee range.
