Dear Editor,
In 1908 Mary Schaffer described Maligne Lake and its surrounding peaks as “the finest view any of us had ever beheld in the Canadian Rockies.” Since then it has become far more than a view.
Maligne Lake and Spirit Island are part of what it is to be Canadian. Together they are one of those natural phenomena that help define a nation. They represent a component of a wilderness reflecting a past national innocence; a revered place that people still yearn to visit in a world now being incrementally battered by a toxic tide of change. It is bigger than Canada; it belongs to mankind and we hold it in trust for the future in a World Heritage Site.
This is no place for a high-end three-storey hotel and high-end tent cabins that only wealthy visitors or corporate interests can afford. This would effectively cheapen the experience for the thousands of people who come here for a once-in-a-lifetime visit. To degrade it for increased profits of a business interest would be unforgivable.
There is more than enough development already to provide adequate day facilities for visitors to see the lake and be able to visit the lovely Spirit Island. The rustic day lodge is reasonably unobtrusive while providing basic services and when the last visitors leave in the evening the silence creeps back and wildlife emerges once more to claim the trails, meadows and the lakeshore.
This is important grizzly habitat and few animals need as much room as they do. The Jasper Management Plan is full of assurances to “maintain or improve habitat security for grizzly bears.” Are these just empty words in a meaningless document? It is also habitat for a struggling herd of woodland caribou—now listed as a ‘threatened species’; Parks Canada is charged with protecting these species, not hastening their extinction.
For the past 40 years, Parks Canada, mindful of its mandate to give first priority to ecological integrity, refused to allow overnight accommodation at the lake. Why is it being considered now? Has its legal mandate changed that it can now compromise its stewardship of nature as well as Canada’s heritage?
No, its mandate has not changed—what has changed is the increased pressure from Ottawa on a shamefully under-funded Parks Canada to facilitate new development for commercial interests in a national park where no more is needed—or wanted.
Jill Seaton
Jasper, Alta.
