Editor:
The Outlook’s May 1 article on the Glacier Discovery Walk was a great disappointment.
Whatever possessed an excellent and experienced reporter like Tanya Foubert to submit a puff-piece for Viad Corporation of Arizona (Brewster’s owner) with no mention whatsoever of the fierce opposition to this project? She ignores not just the almost 200,000 signatures urging rejection in a national petition, but the frequent and clear objections expressed by local residents.
Under the National Parks Act, the primary responsibility of the government is to maintain the ecological integrity of the parks. Instead the current government has made increasing the number of visitors its main objective. Since it is also cutting back the services it offers (lowering the number of hours visitor centres are open, reducing its maintenance of cross-country ski trails, cutting scientific research), the only way its sees to raise visitor numbers is by approving more and more projects by for-profit businesses and special interest groups regardless of the suitability of the project for a national park.
The Glacier Walk is the most egregious step so far in transforming our National Parks into Theme Parks.
Surely we can expect the usually responsible Outlook to present both sides of an issue as important as this. Perhaps we can look forward to a follow up article discussing the merits of improving our access to nature by transferring public viewpoints to private developers.
Alan MacFadyen,
Canmore
