Editor:
It must have been a very frustrating month for the superintendent of Banff National Park.
First, the so-called release of the Tourism Master Plan which wasn’t really a plan but rather a series of ideas and a growth model, wrapped under the green cloak of “sustainability”.
Then the wildcard report from the “Expert Panel on Moving People Sustainably,” put forward a mix of ideas but without any context as to the enormity of the ecological constraints facing some of these ideas.
And finally, Banff council’s decision to completely take off the green cloak facade and explore a land swap for intercept parking outside of the town boundary – a virtual legal and ecological impossibility – given the town has nothing developable of value to swap and is surrounded by land with very high ecological values.
As well-intentioned as many of these ideas may have been, ideas put forward in an ecological vacuum makes about as much sense as asking Jared Kushner to stop by and solve Banff’s complex ecological and visitation problems while en-route to resolving the Middle East conflict.
Reg Bunyan,
Banff
