Plan Calls for Visitor Use Management Framework for Kananaskis, Other Provincial Parks
Cathy Ellis
Rocky Mountain Outlook
KANANASKIS – A new plan for Alberta’s provincial parks aims to deal with increasing demands for recreation, accelerating and new environmental pressures, and a growing population across the province.
A survey seeking input on the 23-page draft Plan for Parks, which builds on direction set in the 2009 strategic plan, is currently out as part of the second phase of public consultation and is open until July 26 at alberta.ca/planforparks.
“In the Plan for Parks, it’s very much parks are for people,” said Tracy Draper, the executive director of strategic planning and capital development with the Parks Division of Alberta Forestry and Parks.
“We will continue to enhance recreation and camping opportunities, building trails and facilities, but also ensuring that the long-term success of our provincial parks is really done in a responsible way so that we don’t love our parks to death.”
The new draft Plan for Parks will guide management of the 305 sites administered under the Provincial Parks Act. This includes 78 provincial parks, 34 wildland provincial parks and 193 provincial recreation areas.
The plans calls for expansion of overnight accommodation options within high-use provincial parks and recreation areas in a way “that is compatible with the natural landscape” and refurbishment of existing facilities and footprints and to consider new developments.
It also recommends proactively identifying “tourism investment opportunities in suitable parks” with a focus on provincial recreation areas, facility zones, and tourism nodes. It does not outline what those could be.
Conservationists worry the plan could open Alberta’s provincial parks up for commercial tourism development and off-road motorized use, which they say seems to be in line with the provincial government’s move to commodify natural spaces.
They are also concerned about what that means for wildlife, including grizzly bears which are a threatened species in Alberta. In Kananaskis County, the estimated population is 50 to 75 grizzly bears, although that number fluctuates due to range and movement of the species.
“The primary focus of our parks needs to be protection of ecosystems, protection of biodiversity and not that focus on commercial development or even recreation if it’s going to compromise those essential values,” said Sara Heerema, conservation outreach specialist with Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA).
“I would say the current draft plan definitely focuses maybe a bit too much on things like tourism, outdoor recreation, expanding park services and doesn’t have enough emphasis on the important part of the Parks Act that stresses protecting vital ecosystems and preserving them from being degraded.”
The draft plan calls for establishment of new parks and expansion of existing parks to address high-use locations and areas where there are fewer parks relative to population size, to be informed through land-use planning and engagement.
With exploding visitation in certain areas, a key recommendation in the draft plan is developing a visitor use management framework and supporting policy to identify pressures related to visitor use across the provincial parks system. Visitation in Kananaskis Country has skyrocketed in recent years.
More and more people started flocking to the region during the COVID-19 pandemic, jumping to 5.4 million visitors to K-Country in 2020 and 5.2 million in 2021 before slightly decreasing. Last year, there were an estimated 4.9 million visitors.
Alberta’s population has increased by more than 35 per cent from 3.7 million in 2009 to five million in 2025. The population is projected to grow to more than seven million people by 2051, with 80 per cent of all residents living within the Edmonton/Calgary corridor.
Balancing Human Use, Conservation
Draper said future work will look at how to balance human use and conservation in the vast provincial park system, including in the Kananaskis Country region where demand is so high.
“How do we do that, not just within the Kananaskis region but across the whole system, so that we’re balancing that dual mandate of recreation and conservation?” she said.
Draper pointed to a three-year pilot with the Town of Canmore to remove pressure at parking lots such as Canmore Nordic Center and Grassi Lakes – something that could be considered in other areas in future under the plan.
“A different aspect could be a whole myriad of visitor use management tools. I’m hesitant to kind of put any parameters around it because it is future work, but I think we all recognize that there is definite pressure on our landscapes right now with the use that is happening,” she said.
“While we know there are busy areas across the province where people tend to go and there’s high demand for those resources, where can we add capacity into the system where we can disperse use and build a destination or an experience that will disperse people across the province.”
The plan also calls for enabling growth of “compatible tourism products” and guided experiences with operators and entrepreneurs.
It recommends providing opportunities for quiet nature interactions such as piloting quiet campground loops or trails, as well as creation of nature play spaces and naturalized campsites.
Evaluation for expansion of evolving nature-based recreation activities where “appropriate and compatible” such as electric powered devices, canyoneering, adaptive mountain biking are part of the plan, as is enhancing trail networks.
With a growing number of people canoeing and stand-up paddleboarding, the plan considers expansion of access to water and water-based recreation opportunities, including paddling put-ins and rustic camping along popular paddling routes.
The plan also recommends refurbishing and developing new day-use sites and campsites, prioritizing areas of high population growth, areas where there are fewer campsites relative to population size, key tourism destinations, and high-use recreation areas.
Development of a clear decision-making framework for tourism proposals and renewals is also a key part of the draft plan, to make sure approvals are “timely, consistent, and transparent”.
Banff-Kananaskis MLA Sarah Elmeligi, who is Shadow Minister for Environment and Protected Areas and a former planner for Alberta Parks in Kananaskis Country, said at first blush the Plan for Parks seems pretty good, but significant pieces are missing.
“The emphasis really feels like it’s on commercial tourism development, but provincial parks are actually set up to conserve biodiversity and create ecosystem resiliency and so that should really be the leading message that you get and it’s not right now,” she said.
Elmeligi is concerned about the silence in the draft plan on the All-Season Resorts Act, which establishes a new regulator for four-season commercial tourism developments and creates a new classification of public lands zoned specifically for such developments.
“The All-Season Resorts Act is about large tourism, commercial developments. The All-Season Resorts Act allows for these things to happen in provincial parks and wildland provincial parks, if the boundary can be changed by the minister, which the act allows for,” she said.
“But then you have a strategic Plan for Parks that also opens the door for tourism investment opportunities and I’d like there to be some language around, like, where will these tourism investment opportunities be encouraged,” she added.
“If they’re happening in provincial recreation areas, that’s very different than if they’re happening in wildland provincial parks, right? Maybe that level of detail will be reflected later, but that’s definitely something that I’ll be looking out for."
When talking about tourism investment opportunities, Elmeligi said there’s a wide scale of what that could look like.
“That can be somebody who’s just running a hiking guide business out of their home and just does guided hikes in parks, but it can range right up to something like Pursuit, which is a multinational corporation creating 5-Star resorts and all kinds of visitor experiences,” she said.
Draper said Alberta Parks will be looking at where opportunities for tourism development exists and where they are compatible within the existing park system.
“We’re not talking about high development in incompatible spaces where the intent is to have a natural experience, but we are talking about what are those things that we could work with the tourism sector on to build out … an attraction or an amenity that would bring people to the park and increase tourism in the province,” she said.
“It’s not so far as having all-season resorts everywhere. It’s more about looking at parks and provincial recreation areas and what is a compatible tourism attraction that we could support, providing the land or working with a partner in building that out,” she added.
“Is it a comfort camping opportunity that's provided by a private sector or commercial operator? Is it something like a boat rental? Is it something like a small-scale glamping opportunity? What are those opportunities that are again compatible with the provincial park system?”
The door, however, appears to remain open for provincial park designations to be removed to make way for all-season resorts.
Draper said all-season resorts cannot occur in provincial parks.
“That was in the legislation that was passed last year by the government, so the two designations are not compatible,” she said.
“If an all-season resort is designated in a provincial park, then the provincial park designation is removed.”
Elmeligi said she’s looking for how the hard decisions will be made in these types of plans.
“It’s easy to create a plan that’s super flowery and ‘Oh, we’re going to protect the environment and we’re going to offer a diversity of recreation opportunities, and all Albertans will have access to parks, but it doesn’t give us any kind of guidance on how will the hard decisions be made,” she said.
“Who makes those decisions? Who decides what the criteria will be for those development proposals or what criteria will those decisions be tested against to make sure that this strategic plan holds its weight?”
A lack of specific conversation around regional public transit in the draft plan was a concern and disappointment for Elmeligi, noting there are increasing issues with full parking lots and roadside parking.
“A lot of these provincial parks, especially ones close to major urban centers, could benefit from having regional public transportation and buses that take people from the city out to the park or out to trailheads or connect trailheads or connect day use areas and campgrounds,” she said.
“There's no mention of even exploring public regional transportation and so that to me is a significant way that we can address affordability for people to get out to these places and to make sure that parks are accessible for all Albertans, regardless of income.”
Officials with Tourism Canmore Kananaskis (TCK) – the official destination management organization for the area’s tourism industry – say they are just getting a chance to dig into Alberta Parks Plan for the Parks as the organization wasn't included in the first round of engagement, but is looking forward to sharing its voice in the second phase.
"At a high level, we welcome any efforts to provide a framework around tourism and recreation efforts in our provincial parks that also considers and holds up efforts for conservation and sustainability," said Rachel Ludwig, TCK's CEO.
"We are stewards for our environment and know that protection and sustainable tourism development can be balanced."
The AWA’s Heerema is pleased to see the plan talks about expansion of parks, but remains concerned about development in general, whether roads, motorized vehicle access, commercial development or more lodging.
She said it leads to habitat fragmentation.
“It also increases the number of people that will visit these areas and the more people that are on a landscape, the more negative impacts there could be felt… create more negative interactions between people and wildlife,” she said.
Next Steps
All survey feedback will be reviewed and analyzed once the engagement period closes on July 26.
Draper said input from the public, Indigenous communities and organizations and stakeholders, along with subject matter expertise, will inform revisions to the draft Plan for Parks and the final plan will be reviewed by the government prior to approval and release.
“I think it’s really important for people to know that they have the opportunity to provide their feedback on the draft Plan for Parks,” she said.
“Their feedback is valued and it will influence what the future of the park system looks like in Alberta. I would urge all Albertans to have their voice heard in this engagement.”