Defend Alberta Parks: What the All-Season Resorts Act Means for Alberta's Protected Areas
CPAWS Southern Alberta is urgently calling on the Ministry of Tourism and Sport to stop the erosion of Alberta's parks and protected areas through large private commercial developments.
A Backdoor for Irresponsible Development
The All-Season Resorts Act has created a new framework for developing large-scale, year-round resorts on Alberta’s public lands. Under the Act, the Minister of Tourism and Sport can designate new All-Season Resort Areas on crown land, allowing protected areas to be carved out for private commercial development.
To date, four All-Season Resort Areas have been designated — Fortress, Nakiska, and Castle Mountain Resorts, as well as the section of land in the Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park associated with the Silvertip Gondola proposal. All four designations have removed lands from the protected areas system.
Alberta’s Protected Areas Should Remain Protected
Alberta’s parks and protected areas are some of the province’s most important public lands. While tourism development can be done sustainably, removing lands from an existing provincial parks to facilitate private resort expansion undermines the protected areas system and directly contradicts clear public sentiment. Polling shows that 79% of Albertans oppose the closure or removal of existing provincial parks and consultation indicates that Albertans believe “that provincial park boundaries and protected areas are established through extensive planning and should be maintained to ensure long-term conservation”.
Protecting these places has long been a priority for Albertans. During the Defend Alberta Parks movement, thousands of people spoke up and halted the Government of Alberta’s plan to delist 175 provincial parks. Recent polling shows these values remain strong, with the majority of Albertans supporting additional lands being protected for wildlife and low-impact recreation.
Once a protected area is changed or removed, the protection it provides can be difficult or impossible to replace. If we don’t act now, Alberta’s parks will continue to be chipped away and handed over to private development.
Fill out the section below to send a letter to your MLA to demand the All-Season Resorts Act stop being used to strip away our parks.
