Miro Cernetig, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, July 28, 2006

VICTORIA — Hotels with more than 100 rooms and helipads could be built in protected wilderness areas under a government call Thursday for private developers to build tourist accommodation in a number of provincial parks.

“Parks play a vital role in conservation, but parks are also for people,” Environment Minister Barry Penner said.

“The population is getting older, and not everyone who stays in a park wants to sleep on the ground in a tent any more.”

He was commenting as his ministry announced it is calling for tourist developments in a dozen provincial parks, which could mean construction of hotels, lodges or even collections of Mongolian-style yurts in the middle of the protected wilderness areas.

The move is aimed at capitalizing on the expected tourism boom leading up to the 2010 Olympic Games and making parks more accessible to a greying population not always keen on roughing it.

The parks include Mount Robson provincial park, Wells Gray park in the Cariboo and Cape Scott park on northern Vancouver Island. (Of the 12 parks listed, two — Mount Assiniboine and Elk Lakes — already have facilities where the government is only seeking new operators.)

The Environment Ministry has asked for proposals for “fixed-roof accommodations” in August.

In a statement, the government notes there are already about 160 “fixed-roof” facilities in the province’s more than 600 parks, ranging from primitive cabins to the plusher Manning Park Lodge, where nightly rates range from $154 for a room to $800 for a cabin with room for 20 guests.

But the development call, the most sweeping in recent memory, could lead to even bigger hotels being built.

While the government is waiting to see what bidders dream of building in the wilderness, Penner said some hotels or lodges could be 100 rooms in size, perhaps even larger. The government also isn’t closing the door on allowing some resorts to have helipads, so guests can be flown into a park in helicopters, said Penner.

But Penner believes most of the developments will be much smaller and regardless of size, will not be allowed if they aren’t environmentally sensitive.

Environmentalists, who believe the government’s plans are the thin edge of a development wedge that will change the nature of the wilderness, were quick to condemn the idea. They are also asking for public consultation to allow British Columbians to vet the proposals.

“Don’t put lodges in the middle of parks,” said Gwen Barlee, a spokeswoman for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee. “Have them on the perimeter of parks. They’ve come up with no logical rationale why they need to have them inside parks.”

The environmental group also warns that building inside parks means more service roads, sewage and power systems. They believe granting leasehold rights to private operators may also create pressures to exclude non-paying visitors from areas around private developments.

“The people of B.C. have fought long and hard to have their spectacular wilderness areas protected,” she said. “And it’s changing before our eyes. We don’t want a McPark’s system. What’s next, burger joints and water slides or creating private beaches around a lodge?”
The New Democratic Party is also calling for public consultation on the proposed park developments. The party’s environment critic, Shane Simpson, said he has no problem with small developments, to make a park stay easier for people, but called the prospect of 100-room resorts in conflict with parks.

“These private resorts are going to be for a very elite market,” said Simpson. “They are not going to be facilities regular folks are going to have an opportunity to attend.”

But Penner, a former park ranger, said his call for more accommodation in parks is “not a radical change.”

Many of the projects, he added, are likely to be much smaller than a 100-room lodge because the ministry will not allow the building of any new roads into the heart of the parks and operators will only be given 30-year leases.

Penner said the government will also be demanding all new buildings have a minimal environmental impact on the park. He said one proposal that might come forward is a collection of tent-like yurts that nomadic Mongolian herders use when they travel the steppes.

“One of the things I’m interested in seeing is a demonstration in the latest in green technologies, for power, for treating water,” said Penner. “There are B.C. companies that are world leaders in doing those things.”

cernetig@png.canwest.com

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OPEN SEASON FOR DEVELOPERS?

Parks where new accommodation is sought:

- Mount Robson — Omineca

- Elk Lakes — Kootenay

- Wells Gray — Cariboo

- Cape Scott — northern Vancouver Island

- Mount Assiniboine — Kootenay

- Fintry — Okanagan

- Silver Star — Okanagan

- Myra Bellevue — Okanagan

- Nancy Greene — Kootenay

- Maxhamish Lake — Peace

- Foch-Giltoyees — Skeena

- Golden Ears — Lower Mainland
© The Vancouver Sun 2006