When I first heard that there might be a National Park on Bowen Island; I had some serious reservations. Visions of the crowded streets of Banff jumped into my head. But the more I think about it the more I like the idea. Here’s my thinking.
The first mandate of our National Parks is to ensure that the ecosystems within the park are maintained in perpetuity. Their second mandate is to provide visitors with an opportunity to enjoy those ecosystems. Currently Parks Canada is embarking on a feasibility study to, among other things; determine whether we have ecosystems worthy of preservation. If it is decided that the Crown Lands of Bowen fit their criteria; then presumably the next step will be a consultation process involving all the stakeholders.
Assuming that they like the idea of a park here, there are a number of opportunities and challenges associated with the logistics of having a park on an island within a municipality and next to a major city. Here is one scenario to demonstrate how it might be possible. Parks Canada could have an interpretation centre in downtown Vancouver; say in Canada Place next to the Seabus terminal. From there, visitors would board passenger ferries that would take them past Stanley Park and under the Lions Gate Bridge to Bowen. The Bowen terminus could be someplace like Seymour Bay. From there; the visitors would be transported by bus to the hiking trails or walk-in campsites on Mount Gardner. The idea would be that the park experience would start and end off of Bowen Island and all of the transportation would be provided. If you’ve ever visited San Quentin in San Francisco Bay or camped in Denali Park in Alaska you realize how easy and pleasant it is to get away from cars and driving and allow your tour guides to cart you around.
I’m not suggesting that this is the only possible model. However, the challenges surrounding clogged ferries, crowded roads and unhappy locals will be apparent to all concerned. Because this will be a park conceived in the twenty-first century a new approach will be likely. I can see the attraction for Yaletown condo dwellers being able to get up in the morning, strap on their backpacks, hike over to Canada Place, hop on a boat, and be setting up their tent in a park on a mountainside on an island before mid afternoon. Parks Canada is becoming as aware of carbon footprints as everybody else so a 100% private automobile free natural experience should sit well with them. I can also see them being attracted to the idea of partnering with the local municipality to achieve zero waste from what their visitors leave behind. On that note, possibly the buses being used to move the park visitors could be part of the Municipal bus system. We could go from inadequate bus service to great service with the aid of the Parks Canada contract.
Many of you probably aren’t buying any of this. You still see a McDonald’s drive thru in Snug Cove. But we’re a long way from that possibility. First of all let’s put a time-line on the process. One year to decide if it’s feasible, then expert work to determine which habitats are to be saved and if any need to be restored. Next would come the consultation phase with the B.C. government to get the land and with the Municipality to ensure that any negative impacts are mitigated. Then there’s the matter of getting the budget and approvals from the Federal Government; engineering, architectural planning and construction of trails, interpretive centres, works yards and general infrastructure; preparation of programs, hiring of staff and deployment. Presumably they would roll out their programs quite slowly so that unforeseen consequences could be handled and mitigated before they became problems. So how long would all of this take? I don’t know but I’d be surprised to see it in less than eight or ten years if everything went perfectly.
The second thing that I’d like you to consider is that the whole project has to get past numerous milestones that could derail it. The ecosystems have to be deemed to be worthy of protection, the B.C. government has to give away the land, the Federal government has to approve the capital cost and long term funding and the Municipality has to be satisfied that we can live with whatever changes are foreseen for the island.
Let’s say for a moment that we get past the feasibility stage and something happens down the road to kill the deal. We will have a new answer for those who say, “What’s so special about Bowen Island?” “This place is so great that they wanted to make it into a National Park.” And if the Provincial government ever wants to sell off or log the Crown Lands we will be able to remind them that Parks Canada deemed this land worthy of preservation.
To put it simply, this is a big deal for Bowen. If you have concerns, and I’m sure that most of us do, keep them to yourself for a while. It would be a shame to kill this deal because of fears of possible outcomes before we even know what this deal is.
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