By Liam Verster

Benefits Questioned

Conservation specialist says closing provincial parks won’t save money, benefit Albertans, or improve tourism

Mar 5, 2020 | 7:55 AM

The Provincial Government has announced that it will be fully or partially closing 20 provincial parks and recreational areas, while removing 164 parks, recreation areas, and natural areas from the park system in order to save money.

However, a Conservation Specialist is sceptical there will be any savings, and has worries of the impact this decision will have on Albertans.

The Government announced the Optimizing Alberta Parks plan yesterday, which calls for 10 full closures and 10 partial closures of provincial parks and recreation areas. The announcement also included the removal of 164 of the available 473 camping spaces in Alberta.

Joanna Skrajny, a Conservation Specialist with the Alberta Wildlife Association, says while the full closures will likely see the parks completely gated with no public access allowed, the partial closures will vary.

“Partial closure for parks, it depends on the site, as far as we can tell, but it would mean either the campground would be closed but the park would remain as a park,” says Skrajny. “Or just half of the campsites would be closed, but the rest would remain. So it’s sort of on a case by case basis on what they propose.”

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At the same time as closing the sites, the Province also plans on removing 164 areas from it’s park system, which includes 19 provincial parks and natural areas.

Skrajny says provincial recreation areas, which are typically campgrounds, with a small amount of land surrounding them, are located within Crown Land.

“The proposal to remove them would mean that they would go up for tender now,” she explains. “So if a private entity, or a non-profit body, or Indigenous group does purchase them, then that area would move over, the campground would move from being run by the government, to being run by a private body. But if they don’t get purchased, then my understanding is that these areas would, essentially, be abandoned.”

She says that once sold though, they will still be surrounded by Crown Land, but no longer have protection values placed on the areas. She adds if it’s purchased by a private body, that entity will have the final say in allowing or not allowing public use, and have final say in the future use of the land.

Skrajny is sceptical of whether this decision will actually be beneficial to the economy, as there is a fee to use provincial camp sites.

“The provincial parks do generate their own money, and some of these areas, you know one would assume, that they would be self-sufficient, based on their fee structure, to pay for themselves.”

The government has said this plan will save the government money, though they haven’t released any specific figures or data on how they plan to do that.

Skrajny argues it would be better to have the parks available for the public to use, and wants the government to release any data that shows closing these parks will make a difference financially.

In the same breath, Skrajny says parks are important for Albertans. She says they provide many people with a stress free environment and a break in a peaceful setting. She says the parks also offer recreation benefits for Albertans, and ecological benefits overall.

Skrajny points out that although the government wants to boost it’s tourism industry, getting rid of parks where people can go camping, is going to hinder that industry.

Since the announcement was made, a petition has been launched online, calling for the Province to scrap the plan, and preserve the natural park space.

EverythingGP reached out to the Honourable Jason Nixon, the Minister for Environment and Parks, but he did not respond to a request for comment.