A recent agreement between Parks Canada and a commercial tour company at lovely Maligne Lake indicates how far Parks is straying from its legislated mandate to leave the national parks “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

These last links with our wilderness past can never be replaced once we allow them to be destroyed.

– Pierre Berton

 
 

MALIGNE VALLEY : commercialization for future generations

In a negotiated lease replacement, Parks Canada will allow a tour company to increase its activities at Maligne Lake by anywhere from 100 to 400%. At the same time, Parks would benefit from increased revenues from the operation. Funding Cuts

The company occupies two leases at the north end of the 22-kilometre-long lake, where its main visitor services operate from May to October. Eight tour boats carry visitors down the lake to the viewpoint overlooking world-famous Spirit Island. The company operates guided hiking and horse rides, fishing services, boat rentals, a restaurant, gift shop and bus shuttle service. They will now be allowed:
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to double tour-boat capacity, putting 2500 people a day onto the tiny Spirit Island viewpoint and increasing the danger to canoeists from larger wakes
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to add five more hours daily to visitor services, encroaching on sensitive wildlife feeding times
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to increase staff accommodation at the lake to house 40 employees instead of just 8 essential staff.
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to use the historic Brewster Chalet primarily as another restaurant and retail outlet, with only 30% space for interpretation
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to hold a lease and licences of occupation for 42 years with no opportunities for review to cope with changing climatic, social and wildlife issues

The big increase in staff accommodation goes against the recommendations of the Panel on Outlying Commercial Accommodations (1999), which proposed an increase of only 180 sq metres – not 1500 sq metres - for staff accommodation. Why have 40 staff living at the lake when guest accommodation is not allowed there because of disturbance to wildlife? Forty staff will create after-hours disturbance on trails in important grizzly habitat and increased night traffic on the Jasper-Maligne road through important wildlife habitat.

The valley is home to all three of the park’s mammals that are considered species-at-risk: woodland caribou, grizzlies and wolverines.

Caribou use the areas bordering the Maligne Road in late spring and early fall if snow conditions in the alpine are unfavorable. Critical habitat for this species has not yet been surveyed. By allowing these increased activities to go ahead, an achievable recovery plan for the caribou – mandatory under the Species At Risk Act – could be seriously jeopardized.

Grizzlies and wolverines also call this valley home. While it is excellent grizzly habitat, the usefulness of this area for them is being compromised by human disturbance. One of the “Key Actions” promised in the Jasper National Park Management Plan for the Maligne Valley was “to manage human use in a way that maintains and improves grizzly bear habitat.” Money from commercial royalties paid to Parks Canada should not be more important than a stressed grizzly population in a national park.

Wolverines use the slopes on either side of the valley, and, from their tracks in winter, frequently cross from one side to the other. They were not even mentioned in the environmental assessment for the lease replacement at Maligne Lake.

Twenty-two submissions from national and local organizations and individuals were part of public input on the environmental assessment. They strongly condemned the proposal and the assessment. However, Parks Canada approved it with mitigations that the public may regard as being totally inadequate considering the amount of disturbance which will be created by the increased activities.