Plan for Parks
The Government of Alberta has a new policy for Parks
The Good the Bad & the Ugly of Parks Planning in AB
In April of this year the Government of Alberta released the much anticipated (and long overdue) parks policy called Plan for Parks. This plan will provide direction on the creation and management of Alberta’s Parks and Protected Areas for the next 10 years.
Over the last year, CPAWS and our colleagues have been hard at work providing feedback for the previous 2 drafts of this important policy. While the Plan for Parks has improved significantly from its first draft, CPAWS is still apprehensive about its on-the-ground impacts. Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly of Alberta’s new Plan for Parks:
The Good: |
The Bad: |
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We finally have a plan. We commend Cindy Ady (Minister of Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation) for completing this plan and filling a policy vacuum. The last parks policy was from 1995 (Special Places 2000). |
A plan for a plan? Many parts of this new Plan for Parks speak to processes that still need to be developed. The current Plan for Parks has:
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For years, no government department held the mandate to create new protected areas. Now, the Parks Department has a lead role in establishing new parks (p. 14). |
At the same time that the Plan for Parks gives the Parks Department the mandate to establish parks it downloads the job of creating new parks to community groups within regional planning processes. This concerns us because the Plan for Parks does not:
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The Plan for Parks promises to create a process for nominating new provincial parks. |
No timeline or details have been outlined for this even though regional plans are currently underway — we need this process yesterday. Also, no funding has been allocated for new parks creation — although the Department's Business Plan allots funds to items such as an online campsite registration system. |
The Ugly: |
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The Plan for Parks does not address the #1 wish of Albertans: Albertans have repeatedly told the Government of Alberta in surveys about parks that they “feel the top priority for Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation should be to set aside more land and leaving it in an undisturbed state.” [Priorities for Alberta’s Parks, Praxis report 2008]. Sadly, this priority is not highlighted anywhere in the Plan for Parks even though the Plan highlights lower level recreational interests such as “designated trails for off-highway vehicles” which was rated as the lowest priority for infrastructure investment and was ranked 13th in a list of 19 favourite park activities. |
Read More...
- Government Plan for Parks Website
- Plan For Parks PDF Document
- Parks, Politics and Participation: An evaluation of the parks planning policy in Alberta, by Paul Janssen. Paul Janssen is a Master's student in the department of Social and Political Sciences of the Environment at Radboud University Nijmegen. In fall 2008 Paul spent time at the CPAWS office researching the social, environmental and economic motivations behind the Draft Plan for Parks stakeholder consultations.
