By John Cotter (CP) - 2 days ago

EDMONTON - Parks Canada is trying to reassure people that Ottawa's push to attract more visitors to national parks won't put the interests of the tourism industry ahead of protecting wilderness and wildlife.

The federal agency is to complete new management plans for 24 of Canada's 42 national parks by April 1.

Draft versions of some of these plans have environmental groups questioning whether the goal of luring more visitors is going to transform national parks into amusement parks that cater to the wealthy.

Nonsense, says Alan Latourelle, CEO of Parks Canada. "It is not about tourism, it is about connecting Canadians," Latourelle said in an interview from Ottawa.

"There is a select group of individuals who have the perspective that the mandate of Parks Canada is simply ecological integrity, which is incorrect. Our job at Parks Canada is to protect our national parks for Canadians, not from Canadians."

Parks Canada's concerns are being driven by statistics that show an ongoing drop in the number of people using the parks. Last year alone there was an overall nine per cent decrease in visits - a drop of 1.2 million person visits from the previous year.

Analysts say the trend can be attributed partly to the economic downturn and partly to demographic changes. About eight out of 10 Canadians now live in urban areas and about 20 per cent of those are recent immigrants. A growing number of Canadians have never gone camping and have never visited a national park.

Private tourism operators say this shift is digging into their bottom lines and they have been lobbying Parks Canada and the federal government to make parks management plans more business-friendly.

Groups such as the Association for Mountain Parks Protection and Enjoyment say they need to offer new attractions in the parks to fill hotel rooms, restaurant tables and tour buses. The group says it is fully supports Parks Canada's goal of attracting more visitors and warns their businesses will suffer if the downward trend continues.

"Times are tough. Since 1998, people operating tourism type businesses in the national parks have seen declining business," says Richard Leavens, the association's executive director. The group includes such tourism heavyweights as the Fairmont hotel chain, Brewster Inc.-a vacation and tour company - Icefields Helicopter and the National Parks Ski Areas Association.

"We want to see an ethic that recognizes that commercial enterprises provides for excellent visitor experience."

Leavens said private tourism operators in the parks are competing directly with destination tourism spots around the world and need new attractions to keep pace.

The association wants Parks Canada to make it easier for businesses to pitch new projects, such as ski lifts. Other ideas include allowing zip-lining, building raised tree-top level hiking walkways in forests and hammering metal rungs and safety lines into mountain faces to make them easier for tourists to climb.

Leavens says Parks Canada should also allow commercial rafting to resume on the Maligne River. It was shut down a decade ago because of environmental concerns.

"Mum and dad and the kids - will they want to go to Banff National Park or they will consider going to Disney World - what are they going to do?" he says. "We need to compete with what mom and dad and the kids want to do with their vacation time."

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and the Alberta Wilderness Association say the draft plans for the parks are too vague and don't clearly spell out how Parks Canada will deal with an influx of new visitors. They say the plans also fail to show how Ottawa will protect wildlife and sensitive wilderness areas.

Latourelle says Parks Canada will take into account the submissions of all groups before plans are finalized and tabled in Parliament this spring. He adds the agency can deal with more visitors without damaging the ecological integrity of the parks.

Latourelle says if they achieve their goals, visitor numbers over the next five years would be no higher than 2008 levels.

"Ensuring ecological integrity and an increased opportunity for experiences for visitors is the right direction for the agency," he says.

"I can reassure Canadians that we are taking our conservation objectives seriously."

Copyright © 2010 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.