Tourism Jasper markets our community and park as a place where “the wild has never left the wilderness.”
Jasper, according to our marketing organization, is a sanctuary for visitors to retreat to. It’s an “authentic, untamed and eclectic” place where you can unplug from the hustle and bustle of city life and just “breathe.”
It’s the untamed wilderness and authenticity of this place that differentiates Jasper from other national parks and tourist destinations.
The people who visit Jasper are here to breathe the fresh air, to see the wildlife and the gorgeous mountain vistas and to enjoy nature, yet Parks Canada is continuing to consider and approve developments that undermine those natural enticements.
The latest is a proposal—soon to land on Supt. Greg Fenton’s desk—to construct a 66-suite lodge and 15 tent cabins at Maligne Lake.
As with Brewster Travel Canada’s Glacier Skywalk, approved in February of 2012, Fenton says there is merit in Maligne Tours’ proposal. He says there is potential to increase visitor experience and to connect people with nature.
But really, how does further privatizing an iconic part of the park add to anyone’s ability to connect with the relatively untouched—at least for now—landscape at Maligne Lake?
Allowing people to stay overnight will only add more cars to the road, more people and noise at the lake in the evening and a greater need for attractions, amenities and entertainment, as people who stay there will need something to do.
If Parks Canada opens the door to overnight accommodation, it’s not increasing visitor experience by connecting people with nature, rather it’s going against everything Jasper is meant to be.
The more the park gets developed, the less untamed, authentic and eclectic it becomes.
In Jasper you often hear people say, “We’re not Banff” or “We don’t want to be Banff.” But quickly, if Parks Canada continues to follow this path, Jasper will become another Banff and when that day comes, no amount of marketing will bring our visitors—the visitors who want the place where the wild never left the wilderness—back to our park.
Those people will find somewhere else to go and the visitors who want a Banff-style vacation, well, those people will go to Banff. How can Jasper—a town four hours from the nearest airport—compete with the accessibility of Banff?
There’s no denying Parks is in an uncomfortable financial position created by the federal government. But financial difficulty or not, Parks has a job to do, and that job is to protect the ecological integrity of this land.
Further development is not the way to do that.
