It’s going to take a full dozen years to be fully established, but Parks Canada will be opening a National Park Reserve in the South Okanagan Similkameen, with a tentative opening date set for the summer of 2021.
Sarah Boyle, project manager for the South Okanagan-Similkameen protected areas, management branch, with Parks Canada, made a presentation to the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) Board Thursday morning and confirmed a new National Park Reserve will be established with a three-month consultation period set to begin in November.
Those sessions will begin in November with members of the public allowed to provide input online, said Boyle.
The Board heard that original discussions to build a National Park in the South Okanagan-Similkameen region date back as far as 2000.
After several years of negotiations and talks between the Province and Parks Canada, the Christy Clark Liberal government announced it would not proceed any further with discussions back in early 2011.
Boyle, who has been working full-time on this project since August, said the public consultation process will begin in early November.
“It will be largely online for a 90-day period and I will be working with groups and communities in terms of providing public information,” she said.
Parks Canada is also looking to establish a distribution list to members of the public who want updates on the park and want to be informed with regular updates, she said.
A big part of her work is dealing with tripartite partners that include the federal government through Parks Canada, the provincial government and the Okanagan Nation Alliance, represented by the Osoyoos Indian Band and Lower Similkameen Indian Band, she said.
“My job there is to make sure things keep moving,” she said.
Parks Canada staff is working towards providing detailed mapping of the proposed boundaries that will make up the National Park Reserve and the goal is to have those boundaries in place by the time the public consultation period starts in early November, she said.
The process to establish a national park includes the establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding that will hopefully be agreed to and signed off before August of 2019, she said.
After that, the partners will enter into negotiations to establish all key details relating to the park.
“The negotiations phase takes between one to two years,” she said. “That will end with the details that will then lead to legislation of a National Park Reserve, which then starts the 12-year period of park establishment.”
The 12-year time frame is status quo for all nationals parks, she said.
“After that 12-year period, you enter parks operations,” she said. “I really wanted to explain that this is a long and detailed process."
During a question and answer period from Board members, Boyle explained the plan is to open the park in the summer of 2021.
“A park opens, but it’s considered growing,” she said. “All parks take up to 12 years it takes for them … to start staffing up, to get their programs and processes in place, to get their assets and infrastructure developed.
“So it’s almost like a ramping up stage.”
Considerations like staffing, opening offices, designing infrastructure and environmental protection programs will commence in 2021 when an opening date is confirmed, she said. There will be working groups from various communities that will be part of this process.
Boyle informed the Board that original consultation on a proposed park for this region dates back to 2004 and negotiations continued until the Liberal government broke off talks with Parks Canada in 2011.
In 2012, the Okanagan Nation Alliance prepared its own report strongly supporting the establishment of a National Park Reserve in this region.
Director Tom Siddon said discussions about a national park for the South Okanagan Similkameen date back to former Prime Minister Jean Chretien and local supporters dating back to 2000.
While a large number of ‘No National Park’ signs have been erected across the region over the years, public polling clearly shows two-thirds of residents are in support, said Siddon.
“Personally, given what it represents, to preserve the natural amenities of the South Okanagan and the southern Interior of British Columbia, it’s a no-brainer. We should do it.”
The time has come to quit talking and move full steam ahead, said Siddon.
“It’s time to get off the pot and do something,” he said.
He’s pleased current leadership in Ottawa and with the provincial government in Victoria are also in support of this park, he said.
There will not be any expropriation of land during any phase of building the national park, said Boyle.
“That is 100% the case moving forward,” she said. “It’s written into the National Parks Act that we cannot gain lands through expropriation. Any seller would be on a willing seller, willing buyer basis.”
Once mapping is finalized, she will be working with various landowners and communities who are within the “soft boundary to let them know what that means for them and give them a chance for questions and comments.”
Parks Canada will be working with cattle ranchers in the parks boundary, she said.
Director George Bush said he remains concerned Parks Canada is continuing to purchase huge tracts of land for national parks.
“The problem being that Parks Canada then becomes the biggest realtor and developer in the country,” he said. “They’re going to eventually buy up all the land … that’s who has the money to buy it.
“What I’m saying is we’re going to lose all our agricultural land. That’s my biggest concern. We’re losing agricultural land all over B.C. We lost 30,000 acres at Site C. We’re going to lose another 10,000 acres here.”
He also feels local governments have been ignored thus far in the negotiation process and he wanted assurances that won’t happen moving forward.
Boyle said Parks Canada is working on a strategy to work with cattle ranching and “will most certainly involve local municipalities. We’re not at the point where we’re consulting yet, but it that will happen in November.”
Director Mark Pendergraft shared his concerns about possible expansion of the park once boundaries are established.
Boyle assured him that when a “soft boundary” is established there are legal agreements that will be put in place that will assure partners would have to approve any changes.
“To expand the park would be very difficult,” she said.
Oliver Mayor Ron Hovanes said while moving forward with this project is good news, the length of time it has taken to get this point and the fact it could be up to another 15 years before the park is fully operational is frustrating.
“Thirty years out of a lifetime is absolutely crazy,” he said.
Siddon added that Banff National Park has become a “national treasure” that is recognized around the world.
He believes a National Park Reserve in this region is long overdue.
“I think we would ultimately suffer a great deal in the South Okanagan if we couldn’t support this initiative,” he said.
Concerns about fires breaking out in the park have been asked before, but there are fire crews and equipment in every park and Parks Canada works with local fire departments as well, said Boyle.
“Parks Canada is a leader at fires … we also want to prevent catastrophic wildfire both in the parks and interface communities,” she said.
She hopes to bring firefighting staff to the public information sessions in November to answer questions, she said.
Boyle will be back before the RDOS board with detailed maps and much more information on Thursday, Dec. 6.
To visit the Parks Canada website, click here.
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