Close X
Saturday, November 30, 2024
ADVT 
National

B.C. Says Park Policy Offers Protection While Others Fear Development

The Canadian Press, 07 Aug, 2015 11:31 AM
    VICTORIA — British Columbia's Environment Ministry is poised to introduce a new policy it says will ensure the province's parks are off limits to industrial activities, but an environmental group fears the plan will open the gates to pipelines and other development projects.
     
    The Ministry of Environment is expected to release its policy on issuing permits for research and information gathering within provincial parks on Friday.
     
    Last year's Park Amendment Act touched off a massive petition campaign from B.C. environmental groups that said the Liberal government was enacting legislation that opened the door to industrial development, including oil and gas pipelines, within parks and protected areas.
     
    More than 167,000 people signed a petition calling on the government to repeal the Park Amendment Act, which became law in March 2014.
     
    "Protecting our natural spaces is a priority," said Environment Minister Mary Polak in a written statement. "This policy provides more clarity around how research and information-gathering activities will be undertaken in B.C.'s parks and protected areas, which allows us to make informed decisions."
     
    A ministry statement said the new policy improves clarity, certainty and authority when issuing permits authorizing activities related to research and investigation in parks. The statement said B.C. parks remain off limits to new industrial activity, but the research permits could play a role in decisions relating to requests to adjust park boundaries.
     
    "Research can be purely for academic purposes, park and protected area management or as part of an environmental assessment or feasibility study," said the ministry statement.
     
    But Wilderness Committee policy director Gwen Barlee said the new permit policy and the amended Park Act gives the government more powers to clear the way for industrial activity in provincial parks. She said parks were created to protect areas from industrial development but that the door has now been opened.
     
    "To say we want to loosen those protections makes parks really vulnerable to industrial development," she said. "And that just defeats the very purpose of why they were created."
     
    Barlee said Polak told the legislature last year during debate over the Park Act that the government required statutory approval to give the province more authority to grant or deny park permit applications.
     
    The Environment Ministry statement said land can be removed from a B.C. park, but that requires an application for a boundary adjustment.
     
    "Before any proposed park boundary adjustment is considered, a very rigorous exercise must be undertaken requiring public, First Nations and local community consultation, a review of alternatives to avoid the park and the completion of environmental assessments," said the statement.
     
    It said that since 2004, 0.028 per cent of 14 million hectares in B.C.'s protected areas has been affected by boundary adjustments.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Heart and Stroke Foundation Basketball Tournament: Playing For A Cause

    Heart and Stroke Foundation Basketball Tournament: Playing For A Cause
    The HSF Summer Classic – a basketball tournament – has been organized to raise funds for the Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSF). 

    Heart and Stroke Foundation Basketball Tournament: Playing For A Cause

    Harbaljit Singh Kahlon And Tom Mulcair Bring The Orange Wave To Brampton

    Harbaljit Singh Kahlon And Tom Mulcair Bring The Orange Wave To Brampton
    With Over 1000 supporters from across the Brampton attending the event, the thunderous rhythms of dhol kickstarted the event while Martin Singh (Brampton North) and Adaoma Patterson (Brampton West) welcomed the crowd.

    Harbaljit Singh Kahlon And Tom Mulcair Bring The Orange Wave To Brampton

    CP officially asks to appeal $430-million Lac-Megantic settlement fund for victims

    CP officially asks to appeal $430-million Lac-Megantic settlement fund for victims
    MONTREAL — The $430-million settlement fund in the Lac-Megantic train disaster is illegal because the Quebec judge who approved it did not have the authority to do so, Canadian Pacific Railway said in its official leave for appeal Monday.

    CP officially asks to appeal $430-million Lac-Megantic settlement fund for victims

    20-Year-Old Man Known To Police Shot And Killed In Vancouver

    20-Year-Old Man Known To Police Shot And Killed In Vancouver
    Police say they received several 911 calls just before 9 p.m. reporting the sound of gunfire in East Vancouver

    20-Year-Old Man Known To Police Shot And Killed In Vancouver

    15-Year-Old Jason Nguyen Found Dead In Home Victim Of Homicide: Vancouver Police

    15-Year-Old Jason Nguyen Found Dead In Home Victim Of Homicide: Vancouver Police
    High school student Jason Nguyen was discovered in his home by a family member just before 3 p.m. on Sunday.

    15-Year-Old Jason Nguyen Found Dead In Home Victim Of Homicide: Vancouver Police

    Suspicious Death Of Teen In Vancouver, Targeted Shooting Injures Man In Surrey

    Suspicious Death Of Teen In Vancouver, Targeted Shooting Injures Man In Surrey
    Surrey RCMP say a man is being treated in hospital after being found in the Port Kells neighbourhood, just after midnight, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

    Suspicious Death Of Teen In Vancouver, Targeted Shooting Injures Man In Surrey