ATHABASCA — A February announcement by the Alberta government to close or partially close 20 parks areas and delist 164 more sites to be reverted to Crown land, caused a stir among many Albertans who cherish the multitude of campgrounds and recreation areas in the province.
Many pushed back by writing letters and placing signs across Alberta, like the Save Chain Lakes North action group in Athabasca, and many have stepped forward to create partnerships at campgrounds and recreation areas saving them from the chopping block. On Dec. 22, it appears their work may have made a difference.
"So, when I get this news release about, they're not going to go ahead with this optimizing park plan, that everything will remain within the park system, even if there's no partnership there the campground or the park will still be open, I have my antenna out,” said Save Chain Lakes co-founder Cecile Fausak. “Where's the loophole going to be in all this?”
Fausak noted while the government touted 170 partnerships as the reason for announcing no closures, many of them are not new — partnerships for campgrounds and recreation areas have been in place for some locations for decades and the government seems reluctant to verify how many are new.
“They've sort of had this bottom line that somehow recreational opportunities need to pay for themselves, but that isn't reality anywhere whether it's multiplexes or parks. Very few recreational opportunities pay for themselves,” Fausak said. “They are a public service, a public good.”
Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken, however, says people expect the government to take care of everything, but also expect a balanced budget.
“The goals that were set out in Budget 2020 that partnering and meeting budget was an important part,” said van Dijken. “It looks like, from what I see, is that Parks and Environment feel they're going to be able to meet their budget with regard to the partnerships that were found.”
He added while not every park will be required to have a partnership, the more partnerships there are, the more sustainable the park system is even if un-partnered campgrounds and recreation areas will not be serviced.
“They're still open, but not serviced the way I understand it,” he said. “I've encouraged people locally who wish to see more service there to look at the opportunity. They can contact the government or they can contact me to move in a direction that would help to provide a more enhanced experience at those at those locations.”
And now that the Optimizing Alberta Parks plan appears to be shelved, a new proposal called the Alberta Crown Land Vision is on Fausak’s and her partner Bruce Jackson’s radar as they read through the survey available on the Government of Alberta website until Jan. 15, 2021.
“What I'm really cautious about is that (in) the survey there's a lot of focus on what fees people are willing to pay.” she said. "So, I'm feeling between the partnerships and the fees being charged that everything is going to be more expensive to enjoy.”
Jackson said it seems counterproductive to add user fees that will in turn add more red tape, and if public lands are to be protected, he questioned why the government policies preventing open pit mining on Crown lands were rescinded.
van Dijken said he had not heard of the sale of Crown land leases for open pit coal mining, but he did say the Crown land survey has nothing to do with trying to dupe Albertans and is about clarity for both users and staff in the field.
“There's always somebody trying to interpret when there's change that it's all of a sudden, ‘Oh, they're trying to get rid of this or trying to get rid of that’ but I look at it overall, the whole Crown land vision that's been initiated is something that many stakeholders whether they're recreational stakeholders, or whether they're industry that's operating on Crown lands, we're needing more clarity in the rules and regulations around all the different classifications,” he said.
At the end of the day, Fausak and Jackson feel saving Chain Lakes Provincial Recreation Area, Lawrence Lake Provincial Recreation Area and Fawcett Lake Provincial Park is a tenuous win because there is no clarity it will be permanent so, even while they move on to other environmental and social projects like fighting to keep Residential schools in Alberta curriculum and watershed preservation, they will keep an eye on what is happening surrounding parks and Crown lands.
