BANFF – The Liberal Party candidate for the sprawling riding representing the Bow Valley in the April 28 federal election has voiced concerns about his party’s campaign promise to make Canada’s national parks free this summer, including flagship Banff National Park.
During a federal election forum in Banff on Tuesday (April 15) for the new redrawn Yellowhead riding – in which the Conservative candidate William Stevenson was a last minute no-show – Michael Fark said he supports Liberal leader Mark Carney’s call for additional national parks, but flagged concerns about free entry to the national parks this summer.
“I am concerned about the policy implications of that, most importantly are they going to commit to make up the revenue shortfall that Parks is going to lose by implementing that,” said Fark during the forum, which was hosted by Banff and Lake Louise Hospitality Association (BLLHA) and Association of Mountain Parks Protection and Enjoyment (AMPPE).
“Campaign promises are one thing, but when it comes time for action and implementation, we need people to actually understand what the implications of the policy are.”
Carney has announced that the Liberals plan to create at least 10 new national parks and 15 urban parks across the country.
He also announced a move to drop national park entrance fees this summer, which comes at a time many Canadians have decided against travelling south of the border amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and threats against Canadian sovereignty.
However, Carney has not said what it would cost taxpayers or what the impact would be on budgets for Parks Canada, which relies on entrance fee revenues as part of its funding model. Banff National Park attracts about 4.3 million visitors a year.
In 2017, the federal government dropped park fees to mark the 150th anniversary of Canada’s confederation. The move led to an explosion in visitation to Banff National Park, which was already bursting at the seams.
Banff Mayor Corrie DiManno said she knows people love and cherish the national parks system, noting it is the Town of Banff’s mandate to help provide services to visitors to the park.
Conservative candidate last minute no-show
Stevenson told the organizers of the election forum that he couldn’t make the event because he had a staff member with a family emergency, which meant he was pulling double duty in his accounting firm. His withdrawal was mere hours before the forum was to get started at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Fark took aim at Stevenson’s last minute absence a couple of times throughout the evening, including during discussion on Parks Canada’s budget and infrastructure pressures.
“It’s unfortunate William is not here tonight. He’s made statements in some of the other forums about wanting to change Parks Canada’s mandate, change the funding models for them, looking for more local or provincial control over our national parks,” he said.
“Those are statements that I find quite concerning, so it would have been better to hear those from him.”
For over a decade, operational funding for Parks Canada has remained relatively flat despite inflationary pressures and rising visitation, which has put strain on essential services like washroom maintenance, waste removal, parking management, fire services and road maintenance.
AMPPE and BLLHA raised questions about the ever increasing pressure placed on local infrastructure in the tourism region, wanting to know how each party would advocate for investment in transportation and infrastructure to improve accessibility to the Bow Valley.
Vicky Bayford, the People’s Party of Canada’s representative for the sprawling Yellowhead riding, said her long-term vision in an ideal world would be a passenger train from Calgary but “right now, I do not feel like we’re in a spot as a country or a province that we can invest in a big train.”
“I think we have to depend on our local people to start the businesses, to start the bus tour companies,” she said.
“I don’t know what another feasible option for transportation to get people here is, other than a private airport, and I don’t think we have the space here for that either.”
Avni Soma, candidate for the New Democratic Party, said this issue has to be thought of in the context of advancing technology.
“I think long-term, where is the future of cars, are we going to be driving, self-driving, are people going to be owning cars?” said Soma.
“Young people in urban areas, most of them don’t drive because they’re either car-sharing or using public transport and things like that … just to think about how we’re going to move in the future as technology advances.”
Fark said multi-modal transportation and mass transit has to be the way of the future.
“It’s not just roads, it’s also parking. If you’re going to park those vehicles, parking takes up an inordinate amount of land and at some point also we have to recognize that there are going to be limits,” he said.
“The idea that we can grow visitation and visitor numbers in the national park without eventually coming to a point where we are degrading both the living experience and the visitor experience and the environment.”
In terms of a passenger train, Fark said he was involved in discussions a number of years ago when the viability of high speed rail from Calgary airport to Banff and Canmore was initially put on the table.
"It requires a critical mass of people and population in order to be able to justify the cost, otherwise it requires a heavy subsidy from government,” he said.
“It is still a project that has a lot of allure; it would be a wonderful visitor experience, but the reality is it’s extremely challenging financially with such a low population base in order to make a project like that work.”
Fark said when talking about infrastructure that is required for the Bow Valley, it has to be about the road network and the Trans-Canada Highway.
“We invest in improving and upgrading and maintaining that infrastructure, which has been under-invested in for a number of years,” he said.
“There are a lot of things we can do in the meantime as we have done in the Bow Valley. Roam locally and On-It from Calgary are really good examples of that.”
