Approve icefields walkway
The Columbia Icefields are not being sold to American interests and Jasper National Park is not being privatized, but you can be excused for believing the opposite is true in both cases.
The anti-development rhetoric surrounding a proposal for an icefields observation deck has reached absurd levels. Coincidentally, the growth of a petition opposing the Brewster Travel project seems to have been influenced by an email database of 12 million addresses owned by the New York-based company that created the petition. It is that company’s stated goal, it should also be noted, to undermine Prime Minister Stephen Harper because of his stance on climate change.
Parks Canada will render its decision today on a permit for the proposed Glacier Discovery Walkway, a tourist attraction that includes a glass-bottomed observation deck jutting out from a cliff above the icefields. It would be fully financed by Brewster Travel, a company that has conducted icefields tours, both on foot and in vehicles, for decades.
A spokesman for the Jasper Environmental Association said a development permit would amount to “catering to a business company.” That’s true: it’s a company that already has century-old roots in the park and employs 300 people annually, and that maintains a flow of tourists — about 1.5 million per year — who pay to visit the park and patronize Jasper businesses.
Yes, Brewster Travel has been owned since 1996 by a U.S. firm. But it has been doing business in the park since then without an uproar. It’s a big overstatement to suggest this small development is the first step in the privatization of the park.
The walkway will have no environmental impact at all on the icefields or wildlife as it will be built on what is now a roadside pullout. Its design is unique and attractive and will likely provide an immediate spike in tourism, which would obviously benefit Brewster Travel, but could also create a widening appreciation among a new group of people for the need to preserve the icefields.
Patrons will pay between $15 and $30; critics have decried charging for a view that is currently free. They call this privatization, but there is no similar outcry when skiers and snowboarders pay Marmot Basin management for the privilege of sliding down their hill.
No one questions the importance of responsible stewardship of Jasper National Park, but this project is minimally invasive and Parks Canada should approve its development.