Parks changes sideline Albertans

Re: UCP’S parks plan a ‘download’: municipalities; RMA head concerned about costs, effect of unsupervised camping activity

The UCP proposal of March 1 affects 37 per cent of all parks and 74 per cent of all provincial recreation areas.

The reported savings is equal to $5 per year of my household budget.

I will not sell the right to manage my own house in order to save $5.

No Albertan would.

A public opinion survey in March shows that almost seven in 10 Albertans oppose the closure or removal of these parks from the parks system.

More than half oppose the closure of two popular visitors’ centres in Kananaskis and ending cross-country ski grooming and track-setting in three areas in Kananaskis.

These changes were introduced without consultation and are clearly a disrespectful attempt to eliminate consultation.

Changing the designation from “public park” to “public land” opens the door for uses such as commercial forestry, oil and gas development, mining, resorts, hotels, gravel extraction, and unrestricted off-highway vehicle access. Uses that are not currently permitted within our parks.

I am concerned that the proposed changes open the door to the sale of parklands. Janette Mcdonald, Leduc