The Alberta government is investing $25.6 million to improve provincial parks in the Kananaskis region, the environment minister announced last week.
“It is really important to move Alberta forward and create those jobs to put people back to work and that is something we are doing through the capital plan and investment with parks does that very quickly,” said Shannon Phillips, Alberta minister of environment and parks.
The $25.6 million has been allocated to go toward provincial parks in the Kananaskis and Calgary regions. Campgrounds and recreational sites on the list will be updated with new campsites and hiking trails, new shower facilities, more campsites with power, more picnic tables, expanded parking lots and refurbished day-use areas.
“Albertans really value and enjoy our natural spaces and those things were neglected by the previous government but they are a priority to us to really be able to deliver those kinds of high-quality experiences for families,” Phillips said.
In a recent study by Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), the society made a call to start protecting Canada’s parks asking officials to renew their commitment to nature conservation and limit development in the parks.
“For almost a decade, CPAWS has observed a significant shift in Parks Canada’s approach to managing our national parks, away form their legislative first priority of protecting nature, towards a more tourism and marketing focused agenda which is putting wildlife and wilderness in our national parks at risk,” – the report stated.
“That was a report done for Parks Canada and from our perspective, Alberta is having a really great tourism year and it is our fifth biggest industry in the province and from our perspective we are moving ahead with both,” Phillips said.
“There are places where more development and activity is appropriate and there are other spots where only doing activity on foot and having more of a backcountry experience is more appropriate, so we are trying to find that balance as a province.”
Phillips said the upgrades to the parks are important to create jobs in the short term and help enhance the experience families can have in Alberta’s provincial parks. Kyle Ferguson, press secretary for environment and parks, could not say how many jobs the upgrades would result in and stated only that it is a labour-intensive industry and would result in hundreds of jobs.
Parks in the Kananaskis-Calgary region to receive upgrades, maintenance, expansions and development with infrastructure include Bow Valley Provincial Park, Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Don Getty Wildland Provincial Park, Big Hill Springs Provincial Park, Elbow River Provincial Recreation Area, Sibbald Lake Provincial Recreation Area, West Bragg Creek Provincial Recreation Area, Cobble Flats Provincial Recreation Area, McLean Creek Provincial Recreation Area, Gooseberry Provincial Recreation Area, Fallen Timber South Provincial Recreation Area and Kananaskis region for multiple capital maintenance projects.
