Environmental groups are boycotting Banff National Park’s annual planning forum amid concerns Parks Canada is too focused on commercial development and say the forum no longer provides an acceptable level of public accountability on management of the park.
Bow Valley Naturalists (BVN) and Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) sent a letter to Parks Canada last week saying they won’t attend the forum next Thursday (Feb. 11), but want to work with the federal agency over the coming year on improvements.
The groups say they’ve chosen not to participate because of serious concerns over ongoing commercial development in the national parks and a lack of focus in a public engagement process like the planning forum on those threats to ecological integrity.
They’re also concerned about a lack of public accountability, pointing to in-camera sessions of roundtable participants, a group that has historically convened in a public setting as part of the forum.
“We’ve observed the planning forum has changed significantly and we just feel it’s got to come back to focusing on the legislated first priority of ecological integrity,” said Colleen Campbell, president of Bow Valley Naturalists.
“Now there’s an inadequate focus on park conservation management and it’s shifted to a focus on visitor numbers and tourism.”
The annual planning forum, now in its 18th year, was originally set up to publicly report on Parks Canada’s progress and challenges in implementing Banff’s management plan. In the beginning, there were two days of roundtable discussions.
The forum and its associated roundtable came out of the $2 million, two-year Banff-Bow Valley Study, which concluded rampant commercial development in Canada’s flagship national park was putting ecological integrity in danger.
In recent years, the format of the planning forum has undergone some changes, and now there is a smaller version every other year. Also new over the last two years is a closed door session of the roundtable.
There are two environmental seats on the roundtable. Other participants include six tourism and business groups, five user groups, municipal and provincial government representatives and First Nations.
This year’s closed door meeting with roundtable participants will be followed by a public meeting at Parks Canada’s administration building from 7-9 p.m. It will start with a look at the year-in-review and report on progress on meeting management plan objectives.
Ending the evening will be a Q&A session where members of the public can ask questions of Banff superintendent Dave McDonough and Lake Louise, Yoho, Kootenay superintendent Melanie Kwong.
McDonough could not speak to why there have been closed door meetings of the roundtable, though he said he’s more than willing to look at that issue again for future planning forums.
He said last year’s meeting with roundtable participants was to seek opinions to help develop priorities for the next five years, and this year’s sessions will be to thank them for their work and explain how their input was used to develop those priorities.
“This year is a smaller version of roundtable meetings,” he said.
McDonough said he would argue Parks Canada is held publicly accountable during the public meeting of the planning forum, which includes a Q&A session with members of the public.
“The key part for me is we have an open public meeting where people have a chance to hear from us directly,” said McDonough.
“That, to me, is the real key component of the planning forum, where we have a chance to present a lot of good work done over the years,” he added.
“There’s an opportunity for people to have direct access to the superintendents. That, to me, is where the real public accountability comes in, whereas it’s not an invited group.”
McDonough said he is willing to work with BVN and CPAWS to address concerns, but also notes Parks Canada’s mandate includes visitor experience and education.
“I look forward to talking to them about is there ways we can adjust the current format and maybe the topics to better facilitate discussions,” he said.
The two conservation groups have no problem with improving the park experience for visitors, but argue the last several years have been more about boosting visitor numbers than creating a better experience.
There’s been a series of commercial special events designed to draw more people to the park, approval of summer use at Mount Norquay and a proposal to expand the Lake Louise ski area, among other things.
Anne-Marie Syslak, executive director of CPAWS’ southern chapter, said the joint letter with BVN asks Parks Canada for a review of the planning forum, and also pointed out there is not a balanced representation of interests on the roundtable.
“There’s been a real shift away from reporting on the management plan and legislated requirement that parks are to be managed with ecological integrity as a first priority,” said Syslak.
“To be honest, the planning forum is of no value to our groups. We’ve talked to Parks about this and we’re saying we want them to review the forum. We need to see changes.”
