TAKE ACTION: Oppose Bill 35, the All-Season Resorts Act, TODAY

Your letter will be sent to the Alberta Minister of Tourism and Sport, the Minister of Forestry and Parks, the Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, the Official Opposition Critic for Tourism, Sports & Recreation, and your MLA.

Honorable

Joseph

Schow

Government of Alberta

Dear Minister Schow,

I am writing today to express my concern about Bill 35, the All Season Resorts Act. If passed, Bill 35 would enable private developers to build or expand all-season resorts on Crown Land, jeopardizing Alberta's environment and hindering emerging community-based tourism and recreation economies. Tourism development should be pursued as part of building a sustainable, diversified provincial economy, which requires implementing it within a broader land management approach, and the land-use planning framework.

I do not support Bill 35 for the following key reasons:

1. Undermining critical land-use planning and Ministry authority by circumventing appropriate planning, review, permitting, and approval process for all season resorts in the interest of developer:

Bill 35 would allow for the unprecedented transfer of land management from Environment and Protected Areas into the hands of the Ministry of Tourism and Sport, enabling the Minister to autonomously make or amend regional plans related to all-season resorts without the current requirements of consultation or reporting.

This would shift decision making away from land management and environmental experts; it would also circumvent the land use planning and regulations required to maintain the very ecosystems that outdoor recreation and tourism activities rely upon. Moreover, the establishment of new all-season resort areas within Kananaskis Country would be in direct conflict with the long standing Kananaskis Country Recreation Policy (1991), which prohibits large scale commercial developments and townsites.

2. Disregard for environmental protection and public accountability, engagement, and opinion:

Bill 35 increases the potential for parts of protected areas to be delisted and privatized as all-season resorts, subversively reducing environmental protection, transparency and public access. This directly contradicts the results of consultation on the Alberta's Plan for Parks, which clearly highlighted Albertans' desire for more and stronger protections for our provincial parks for biodiversity, as well as their lack of support for large-scale commercial developments in parks and natural areas.

3. Failing to support Alberta municipalities and sustainable, local tourism benefits:

While tourism investment is important, it should be held to the same standard as other land uses, support environmental protection, and ensure community benefits. The development of new all-season resorts on Crown Land away from existing municipalities would reduce secondary economic benefits to communities and primarily result in benefits for private resort developers.

For these reasons, I feel it is CRUCIAL that Bill 35 does not proceed in its current form through third reading, as the potential for problematic designation and regulation of all-season resorts poses significant risks to the province's parks, public lands and waters, natural regions, and wildlife. The bill circumvents existing safeguards that are in place in order to balance private developments on public lands, without providing sufficient evidence that it will foster sustainable and inclusive benefits for communities.

Sincerely,

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CC: My MLA

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