When I was 17 in the 1970s, I piled into a sickly Dodge Dart with three other guitar players and headed west from Toronto to seek our fortune. It was a blisteringly hot summer, and along the way we ran the car heater full blast to prevent the engine from overheating.

After cruising along the Trans-Canada that seemed to run forever through the Prairies, we arrived at Banff National Park. It was here, at the birthplace of Canada’s national parks system, that the car coughed to a stop and I experienced what every city kid who’s ever run into the wilderness has known: awe.

Escaping Into the Wilds

We escape into the wilds to find ourselves. Even as we flee the part of our lives that grinds along with the humdrum workaday rattle of getting things done, we’re hoping to find, out there, what’s nested deeply inside—hopes, dreams, maybe peace. So when we leave pavement for just a few hours to go on a hike or to spend a week on a canoe trip, we are often seeking that inestimable “something” that’s far bigger than ourselves.

Every time you travel to a national park, you have a strategy. You consider what you will do when you get there. You follow a route. Most people do not stumble upon a national park as I did. Even if you go with the intention of exploring a meadow of purple wildflowers, planning is part of the process. We must, somewhere along the way, choose a path.

We now stand at a crossroads with Parks Canada. If more adventure-based activities such as mountain biking, kiteboarding and guided fixed-rope climbs become available in our parks, will we lose something? Or gain?

Trouble in Paradise?

Conservationists caution against adding activities. Business interests believe drawing more people to the parks with bold new things to do will enrich the visitor experience and improve the bottom line.

This summer, as Parks Canada rolls out its centennial celebrations with umpteen free events and concerts, there are people asking…is there trouble in paradise?

Parks Canada links the country and people together—from the cliffs of Gros Morne in Newfoundland to the rainforests of Vancouver Island. We must ask what protected lands mean to us and, in so doing, consider what it means to be Canadian.

It’s a huge and diverse country and the geographical context, as delineated by many Canadian writers, is wilderness—which the parks make accessible. As we decide what do with our national parks, we reveal the kind of people we want to be. We give shape to our best selves.

The World’s First National Parks Service

Besides being the world’s first and, today, the largest parks system on planet Earth—Parks Canada is the protector of 167 national historic sites, 42 national parks and four national marine conservation areas.

For that bounty, we can thank three Canadian Pacific Railway construction workers who stumbled across a cave and hot springs in 1883 (which went on to become the Cave and Basin National Historic Site in Banff National Park). Soon after, the federal government set its sights on developing Banff and other mountain parks for wealthy international train travellers.

The Dominion Parks Branch, later known as Parks Canada, was established on May 19, 1911. It was only later, decades later, that conservation became its mandate—initially it was designed to expose tourists to the wilds from the luxurious comforts of their train car. 

New Challenges for Parks Canada

A century later, the challenges facing Parks Canada are much more complex. After numerous surveys probed Canadians on why they were visiting national parks far less than the previous generation, Parks Canada came up with a strategy that addressed three of their biggest challenges: the need to complete the national parks system, ensure our parks remain relevant to a generation of younger and new Canadians, and lastly, ensure that areas continue to be protected for future generations.

“In the last 50 years or so, there hasn’t been a significant change to the nature of the Canadian parks experience,” says Parks Canada CEO, Alan Latourelle.And, perhaps, that’s one of the reasons why visitors aren’t coming in the droves they once did.

“Prior to 2000, we had never seen a visitation decrease,” says Latourelle. “But in the past 10 years we’ve seen a 20 per cent decrease at our national historic sites. Our bigger mountain parks have seen a small increase because they often get more international appeal, but nationwide numbers are down.”

It turns out only half a percentage point from 2008 figures—not much when you consider the economy of the last few years, but Parks Canada says it stemmed what could have been a massive plummet in visitation numbers by freezing its fees to 2008 levels. Park entry and camping costs as well as mooring fees at historic canals will remain the same until April 1, 2012.

Add to that a budget decrease from last year’s $920 million to this year’s $690 million and Latourelle is the first to admit that this year will be a huge challenge. What happens, he says, during this centennial year will have major repercussions on the future of our national parks system.

“This is the last generation that can protect, take action and create a system that represents the diversity of Canada’s geography and nature for future generations,” he adds. “With more competing land uses (forestry, mining, development), the opportunity to secure land for park purposes is shrinking.”

Predicting the Future of Our National Parks

Determining a park’s purpose, well, that’s the tricky part. Fewer people in the parks will result in less dollars, and could diminish the attention paid to the parks, which may well ruin the visitor experience rather than enhance it—in other words what’s happening today.

Does that mean the wiser option is to push for controlled development? If we add more attractions and activities will we boost numbers and appreciation for our national parks?

But first, what, exactly, does this generation want?

New Activities Could Affect Canada's National Parks

Apparently, new adventure-based activities will help fit the bill. The top five activities identified through national surveys conducted by Parks Canada are mountain biking; kite boarding; guided and interpreted tours that include canopy walks, ziplines, via ferrata; community gardens, and hang gliding and paragliding.

But some environmental activists believe these activities conflict with Parks Canada’s mandate of conserving and protecting the parks into the future.

“We’re seeing what we consider to be a significant change in direction on the part of Parks Canada, toward a greater emphasis on tourism, and on finding ways to dress up the national parks with bells and whistles.

But it’s a vision driven by business interests and senior park management, not the public,” says Mike McIvor, president of the Bow Valley Naturalists [BVN], a Banff-based organization involved in conservation projects since 1967.

To Ferrata or Not Ferrata

The BVN is highly opposed to the rumoured via ferrata (a fixed cable mountain climbing system) to be built at Mt. Norquay in Banff National Park.

If this program is approved some 30,000 visitors a year could take a guided via ferrata experience at Norquay, says Peter Sudermann, vice-president at Norquay who’s been pushing for a via ferrata for several years.

However, McIvor maintains, “these kinds of activities can be found elsewhere and I don’t think they’re appropriate for national parks. The argument really focuses on Canadian values. People want to go to parks to experience nature and peace and quiet, not new fun and games. There is no better time for Parks Canada to give its head a shake and get it straight than its centennial year.”

Latourelle says Parks Canada has undertaken a national forum with environmental groups, recreationalists and others. As a result, step one was a national policy that said these activities would be looked at. Next, steps need to be taken to determine that local environmental considerations, legislative and regulatory obligations are addressed and respected.

“We are here to protect our national parks for Canadians, not from Canadians,” says Latourelle.

How Parks Canada is Engaging New Generations

With youth highly involved in Internet technologies, competitive sports and other activities, the challenge of attracting younger and new Canadians requires innovative strategies, he says.

Initiatives launched include the My Parks Pass, a program providing free access to national parks and historic sites for Grade 8 students, and My Greatest Summer Job: videos posted on YouTube profiling youth experiences in national parks and historic sites.  A new national policy direction on Visitor Activity Guidelines that will offer new experiences is also in the works.

Today’s corporate plan aims to boost the number of Canadians visiting national parks by 10 per cent over the next five years, while fostering a personal connection to Parks Canada. If you haven’t yet visited a national park, historic, or marine conservation site, it’s not too late.

What a long, strange trip it has been, for me and for Parks Canada. How could I know at 17 when that car shuddered to a stop in the lee of the Rocky Mountains that many years later I would end up living a stone’s throw away in Calgary.

Or that when the national parks feted their 100th birthday I would have sailed past my 50th with an eye on an uncertain future—the kind of perspective that comes with a certain age.

A Crossroads for Our Parks

How could those three railway workers, whose discovery heralded the blooming of Canada’s national parks system, have foreseen the business and environmental challenges arising so far down the road? We all walk the road forward as best we can.

When the past glitters like the snowy peaks and you trod beneath the shadow of what looms ahead, you will reach a crossroads, and you might wonder if the best is behind you. A candle may light your way, but you must be guided by your conscience.

Regardless of the debates, our national parks continue as the fixed places to where we can travel into ourselves, as much as out to where the wilderness beckons. Then, as now, they invite our discovery and enjoyment.

We will each make up our minds about the future of these national treasures. For direction, we can follow the compass with our hearts.

Make sure you check out our national parks gallery and stay tuned to find out who wins our Parks Canada Photo Contest!

Photos courtesy of Parks Canada, the Whyte Museum, Brewer Transport Company and by Ryan Creary and Jackie Zinger.