A love of nature defines and unites Albertans.
The natural beauty of Alberta is beyond epic, and Albertans are proud of and embrace their wild spaces wholeheartedly.
Try to take away our parks and our access to natural areas, and Albertans get angry fast!
The Alberta Government discovered the hard way how passionate Albertans are about public natural spaces.
In January 2020, the UCP delisted 184 provincial parks to save $5 million annually. Albertans of all political stripes pushed back against the government, until less than a year later, the UCP confirmed that it was not closing any parks or campgrounds.
And just try and sell off our precious foothills and mountains to foreign interests for the expansion of coal mining, and Albertans who are normally at odds with each other join forces to protect their beloved landscape.
In a 9-month period, musicians, ranchers, conservationists, First Nations, and urban and rural Albertans banded together until the UCP government was forced to reverse its plan.
But the demand for parks and natural areas has not always united Albertans. Sure, we all want natural areas, but how we use them causes conflict, especially in areas of the province that have historically been ‘multi-use.’
For example, in 2018, the NDP government introduced a $40 million Bighorn Country Plan to create parks, campgrounds, and protected areas in the Bighorn Wildlands west of Nordegg. The idea was modelled after Kananaskis Country, which has become one of Alberta’s most beloved natural gems.
Even though an Advanis poll showed that almost three out of every four Albertans supported the Bighorn plan and only one in six opposed it, the plans were sidelined.
It got nasty. A small but vocal minority, including some UCP MLAs, used threats and intimidation to force the NDP government to shut down public information sessions.
Shortly afterwards, the UCP was elected in the 2019 provincial election. The new government scrapped the plan and showed no interest in creating new parks.
Most of the opposition was from locals. They had used the area for decades as their wilderness playground and did not want any ‘formal’ park designations which would restrict how they could use the area. They were afraid it would also increase tourism, and they would have to share the area with non-locals.
Ironically, the publicity raised awareness, and thousands flocked to the Bighorn, where now high visitation rates and minimal services threaten the integrity of the fragile montane habitat.
Fast forward three years, with record oil and gas revenues and 11 million collected in 2022 from the Kananaskis Conservation Pass. Now, there is ample money to create new parks and protected areas.
But the UCP government has no plans to create new parks. Instead, Danielle Smith mandated Forestry and Parks Minister, Todd Loewen, to create 900 new campsites and invest $5 million in trail upgrades in Kananaskis over 10 years.
The announcement has some cheering but has left others frustrated. People are concerned about the environmental impacts of increased congestion and overcrowding in Kananaskis, which already receives over 5 million visitors annually.
Tara Russell, program director for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, summarized the concern for CBC News. “We’ve got really high demand for parks and protected areas, both for recreation opportunities and nature conservation, and this [plan] makes absolutely no mention of increasing the number of parks in Alberta.”
Banff-Kananaskis NDP MLA Sarah Elmeligi, who has an extensive background in conservation, wildlife biology and park planning, told the Cochrane Eagle: “We know that Kananaskis Country is experiencing very high levels of visitation and a lot of that is associated with traffic, but there’s nothing in here to address the volume of traffic, there are no programs in here to address the volume of cars on the road, but we know that’s one of the biggest challenges from an environmental but also a visitor experience perspective.”
Some feel the Alberta Government is doing a quick fix by adding more campgrounds to an already oversubscribed area.
What most Albertans want is not just more campgrounds but an overall expansion of natural areas across the province.
How these areas should be used are open to debate, but one thing is for certain, never try to take away Albertans’ beloved public landscapes! That’s where Albertans stand united!
