When was the last time you visited Goldstream Park, Ruckle Park, Botanical Beach Park, Gowlland Tod Park, John Dean Park, Mount Maxwell Park or Dionisio Point Park?
These wild spaces are part of the reason we live in Victoria. Our pride in these and other provincial parks comes from memories and experiences of smoky campfires, brilliant mountain vistas, aching muscles and crashing waves.
Since 1911, our provincial governments have established 1,030 provincial parks. Strathcona Park on Vancouver Island was the first. Now, more than 14 per cent of B.C. is in provincial parks. It’s a great, even noble, achievement. Governments of all persuasions deserve congratulations on this outstanding achievement.
The B.C. government manages our provincial parks system with a core of excellent staff, supported by private-sector facilities operators who provide quality camping and other services, and volunteers such as ecological reserve wardens. In addition, some of the parks are managed by First Nations through government-to-government agreements.
As the number of parks has increased, government financial support has been reduced. In current dollars, B.C. Parks receives less money to operate the provincial system now than it did 25 years ago — despite the fact that that the system has nearly tripled in size.
This “business” model makes little sense when “Supernatural” B.C. remains our best branding formula and each $1 of government investment in parks generates $8 in economic activity.
Sadly, parklands and park wildlife have no voice, and parks cannot vote. This chronic under-funding is simply the result of elected officials who have responded to the wishes of their constituents to fund increasingly costly education, social and health services, instead of parks. Long-term stewardship cannot compete with immediate need.
Clearly, we are not taking care of this staggeringly beautiful and rich natural inheritance, as verified in the 2010 report by the auditor general on government’s stewardship of provincial parks.
Over the past 10 years, we, the Elders Council for Parks in B.C., have made repeated presentations to government budget committees to boost funding and have hosted conferences to look at new ways to restructure the parks funding model.
Our conclusion is that both an increase in provincial funding and a sustainable “community intervention” in our parks system are necessary.
We are launching a “community intervention” to take a measure of control over this situation with the establishment of Parks Collaborative - Victoria, launched under the aegis of the Elders Council for Parks in B.C.
The Parks Collaborative - Victoria will bring people from our broader community together to leverage financial, technical and community support for local provincial parks, to complement provincial government investments. We have chosen 10 projects to complete over the next two years to bring support to current volunteers and the 42 provincial parks in and around southern Vancouver Island.
Our projects are varied. One will develop measures for “What is a healthy park?”
Another will collect park stories. We will invite youth organizations to conduct a needed inventory of all park signs and in the process explore our parks. We will establish an information hub and host a get-together in the late fall to stimulate conversations and share information among volunteers and supporters.
We think many individuals, organizations and businesses will be keen to support our parks if they know what is needed and can see how they can help. The current group of valiant volunteers deserves more support from all of us. Perhaps you can help us in some way that you would enjoy.
A healthy provincial parks system is a great legacy for our kids. Let’s mobilize for this “community intervention” and ensure that our 42 provincial parks, at least, will continue to give us, our children and future generations, good air, good health and good spirits.
Oh! And maybe if we do a good job, the rest of the province might follow Vancouver Island’s lead — just as they did after that first park was established in 1911.
For more information, contact us at colinkcampbell42@gmail.com
Colin Campbell is leader of Parks Collaborative-Victoria, and Nancy Wilkin is president of the Elders Council for Parks in B.C., a group of retired employees of B.C.’s national, provincial and regional park agencies and park-related organizations.
