Alberta's Parks Are NOT For Sale

Your letter will be sent to your Member of the Legislative Assembly, the Minister of Tourism and Sport, the Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, the Minister of Forestry and Parks, and the Official Opposition Critic for the Environment.

Honorable

Joseph

Schow

Government of Alberta

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I am writing to you today to express my profound concerns with the All-Season Resorts Act, which exposes public land, beloved by Albertans and critical to biodiversity conservation and ecological integrity, to the development of year-round privatized resorts.

Before Bill 35 passed, and in less than a week, more than 4,000 Albertans sent letters opposing it becoming legislation. The Government of Alberta ignored these letters, and passed it anyway.

In a dual biodiversity-climate crisis, we need to protect deteriorating ecosystems, restore habitat for species at risk — like bison, woodland caribou, native trout and grizzly bear — and ensure our environment is managed responsibly, providing local, sustainable tourism that supports both Albertan communities and our provincial economy.

The All-Season Resorts Act (ASRA) fails to do ANY of this. Instead, it:

- Exempts tourism development in All-Season Resort areas from normal environmental review and permitting processes applied to other public land use activities.

- Makes it clear that protected area designations may be rescinded to create all-season resort zones.

- Contradicts long standing government policy and legislation, including the Kananaskis Country Recreation Policy, which was the result of robust public consultation that concluded Albertans’ desire for the future of Kananaskis to be about conservation, not large-scale commercial development.

- Flies in the face of recent public polling (see here), and survey responses for the development of a new Alberta Plan for Parks, which highlighted support for increased protected areas for conservation and low-impact recreation, not removing park status and increased risk of unsustainable development.

- Undermines the Alberta Land Stewardship Act (ALSA) and the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act and the Natural Resources Conservation Board Act.

- Transfers land management to the Tourism and Sport Ministry, which has never been a land manager, and to staff in this Ministry who have no experience or expertise to carry out this role.

Tourism development should be pursued as part of creating a sustainable, diversified provincial economy, which requires it to be implemented within a broader land management approach, and the land-use planning framework. This includes ensuring equitable, ecologically responsible access to recreation and tourism opportunities for current and future generations through long-term land management.

All-Season Resorts MUST be subject to the same rigorous standards of planning and review as all other developments on public land, conducted by the appropriate experts in land use planning and environmental regulation. Moreover, members of the public, stakeholders, and Indigenous Peoples MUST have a say in how and where All-Season Resorts are developed.

We as Albertans have consistently expressed support for more and better protections for our provincial parks, as well as our opposition to large-scale commercial developments in parks, protected areas, and natural areas. This was evident in recent public polling and the Government of Alberta’s Plan for Parks survey results.

Any delisting of parks or protected areas, or redrawing of their boundaries at the whim of the Ministry of Tourism and Sport, is absolutely unacceptable. The Governmnet of Alberta should not expect its citizens to sit idly by as their parks are put on the chopping block.
 
As such, I want the All-Season Resorts Act REPEALED. Before it is repealed, I want the unprecedented powers in it to go unused.

I look forward to your response, addressing my concerns, and those of thousands of Albertans across the province.

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