The Town of Banff is getting millions of dollars in grant money to build park-and-ride lots and buy a fleet of buses to shuttle visitors downtown – but it has no approval from Parks Canada to move ahead.
The municipality will see close to $15 million in provincial-federal grant funding for transit-related projects, but council members fear they won’t be able to pursue some of them to help solve the tourist town’ s horrendous traffic troubles without Parks Canada jumping on board.
Parks Canada has been publicly admonished several times at the council table over the past few weeks, with Councillor Stavros Karlos in particular expressing deep frustration at the federal agency’s lack of commitment to transit in Canada’s flagship national park.
“Now the rubber hits the road and Parks Canada should start approving these projects immediately, including intercept lots outside of Banff, and assisting us with the operational costs of transit in this town,” said Karlos. “It’s unacceptable that they’re not.”
Bow Valley Regional Transit Services Commission (BVRTSC) applied for a total of $14,955,667 in provincial GreenTRIP funding and federal Public Transit Infrastructure Fund money – and got it – for transit projects included in Banff’s capital budget.
The funds will go towards the $10 million price tag to build intercept lots and $1.2 million to buy shuttle buses, as well as a transit hub, bus storage facility, additional buses to allow for increase frequency to local Roam routes, and construction of bus shelters.
The Town of Banff is kicking in $6.5 million to make up the balance of these transit projects. Taking advantage of low interest rates, council has decided to debt finance in order to afford other capital projects.
Council has also directed administration to formally ask Parks Canada to commit dollars to transit programs in Banff, noting local taxpayers fund a bus service that shuttles visitors up to Parks Canada’s hot springs, as well as to and from the Tunnel Mountain campground.
“The Town of Banff has more than fulfilled its obligations on transit, but Parks Canada has not come to the table with real solutions,” said Karlos.
“The taxpayers of Banff now have funded the vast majority of all service improvements, including service improvements to Sulphur Mountain, which is not within the Town of Banff.”
Banff’s long-term transportation study recommends the Town work with Parks Canada on the concept of expanding parking at the Fenlands rec centre at the west entrance to town, and a new park-and-ride lot along Banff Avenue at the Elkwoods site at Banff’s east entrance.
Parks Canada has consistently said no to Elkwoods over the last two decades, noting it lies outside the legislated town boundary and within a large travel corridor for several species, including large carnivores like bears and wolves. Elk also use the area as a refuge.
Parks Canada was unable to provide a spokesperson for an interview, but emailed a statement.
“Parks Canada has not received any formal proposal for intercept lots. We will be in a better position to respond once we receive a proposal,” wrote Christie Thomson, acting public relations and communications officer, in the statement.
“Parks Canada is supportive of solutions within the town boundary and open to discussing solutions consistent with the park management plan and the Canada National Parks Act, which guide our decision-making process.”
BVRTSC was also successful in getting millions of dollars in funding for a Roam service in the national park, including a Banff to Lake Louise bus service and development of an intercept parking lot in Lake Louise.
Karlos and some of his council colleagues continue to be frustrated with Parks, noting the federal agency has done very little to meet its commitment in BVRTSC’s five-year business plan, as well as transit goals in the Banff National Park management plan.
“Parks Canada has not, in fact, put money where this priority is in terms of operational and capital funding,” Karlos said.
“That system should be in place currently and, in my estimation, what we have now with school buses in Lake Louise running across two lanes of highway is an embarrassment.”
Karlos said a robust regional transit system would give visitors to Banff a much better experience, do environmental good by parking cars spewing out CO2 emissions and getting people to catch buses around the town and park.
“I visited Yellowstone two years ago and sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic for an hour and a half – that’s a crap national park experience,” he said.
“Give me a bus and give me a place to park and I’ll get on that bus and get to where I want to be so I can spend time with my family and see wildlife.”
