Sunshine Ski Resort Expansion Is Bad News For Banff National Park

If you care about Banff National Park and the system of Canadian national parks then read this and act now before it is too late.

In Canada's national parks there is a fine balance between the primary protection and preservation of the parks and the secondary regulation of viable commercial services within the parks.  That balance is under immediate threat by the failure of Parks Canada to properly regulate commercial operators and there is no better example of the problem than Sunshine Village Ski Resort owned by the Scurfield family of Calgary.

Sunshine Village operates on land within Banff National Park and Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park in BC.  The entire area is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.  That means these park areas have been recognised as internationally significant and deserving of protection.  

Few would expect that a corporation that has been entrusted to operate a ski area on these protected lands would act in complete defiance of that trust but unfortunately that is the case. Last Easter Sunshine Village deliberatly breached the BC Parks Act and began running commercial snowcat tours into the pristine, world-famous Sunshine Meadows adjacent to the ski area.  The snowcats took paying guests to the shores of Rock Isle Lake, well beyond the ski area boundary and once there a fire was lit for their exclusive enjoyment.  This was blatant commercial abuse of protected lands for private profit.  None of this was authorized by BC Parks, in fact BC Parks didn't even know it was happening.  When they found out about it they brought a swift end to the illegal practice however no charges were laid.  Essentially the ownership of Sunshine Village got away with a gross breach of the BC Parks Act that no individual would escape without prosecution.  As usual there is one rule for the rich corporations and another for the rest of us.

If that blatant abuse isn't bad enough, the problem gets much worse back down at the parking lot.  Sunshine Village has built a lot of new lifts in recent years, most of them are detachable quad chairlifts and a new, faster and higher capacity high-speed gondola.  This has created a much higher on-hill capacity and on busy days there can be well over 6000 visitors pounding the shallow Rockies snowpack right to ground.  The wider effects of this onslaught seems to have escaped the consideration of succesive Parks Canada officials when granting permits.  A major problem is that the higher capacity has resulted in a far greater number of vehicles than the parking lot can accommodate.  So Sunshine Village just ignores the limits of its lease and expands its parking lot onto the public road beyond the lease boundary.  Sunshine employs staff to park cars 8km down the road - almost half-way back to Banff and then runs shuttle buses the length of the road, impedes traffic, disregards wildlife corridors and ignores obvious public safety issues.  It's hardly a world class experience for visitors but it provides a steady flow of additional profit to the Scurfields and the corporation.

A silimar parking problem occured this past summer on nearby Morraine Lake Road near Lake Louise, which prompted the RCMP to periodically close the road for public safety reasons. That particular problem was created by the public choosing to park on the road.  In the case of Sunshine Village the problem is caused by the corporation itself which is deliberatly breaching its lease boundary and operating a parking operation on a public road.  Parks Canada turns a blind eye to the whole thing completely washing its hands of its obligation to regulate the ski area and enforce the lease provisions.  Sunshine doesn't even pay a fee for what amounts to a massive land grab to expand its capacity and increase its profits.

All this comes at a time when Parks Canada is allowing expansion of commercial activity within our national parks.  New commercial proposals to exploit national parks are being given the rubber-stamped go-ahead by Parks Canada.  But how can we trust in the promises of Parks Canada and commercial operators when Sunshine Village, for example, can blow past the limitations of its own lease agreement while Parks Canada blissfully looks the other way and does little or nothing about it? As a long-standing major commercial operator in Banff National Park, Sunshine Village should be an exemplary model of the kind of sustainable commercial visitor services that can exist within a national park.  The company claims it is just that but the evidence is clear that claiming to be something doesn't make it so. It's not about what they say, it's about what they do. It's about actions not words.  The actions aren't good.

Why does the Sunshine access road issue matter to all Canadians?  Well it's simple really - it's a current indicator of where things can go badly wrong in the future and how little we can trust Parks Canada to prevent that. So when some other commercial operator comes forward with a lease and development proposal, no matter how meritorious it may be, how can we trust that the lease will mean anything 5, 10 or 20 years down the road. Though an operation may be have impeccable standards right now, who will be running the operation in 20 years and what will their standards be then?  Look no further than what is happening every winter at Sunshine Village.  The lease is a legal agreement between the corporation and Parks Canada, the federal government and the people of this nation.  Sunshine Village ignores it and thumbs its nose at the obligations and limitations it once promised to adhere to.  Parks Canada lets them do it.  All the promises are obviously empty and meaningless.

Our faith in a sustainable future for our national parks must be founded in a basic trust in the objective administration and regulation of commercial activity by Parks Canada. Clearly though, that faith is built on sand.  How can we trust that Parks Canada will regulate and enforce activity according to objective expectations and standards if regulatory oversight at Parks Canada is dependent upon the subjective ad-hoc priorities of senior Parks Canada administrators ? Do the terms of a commercial lease in the parks mean something in perpetuity or not? Is the lease boundary a protection for lands beyond that line or not? Can we trust that future issues will be handled in a publicly transparent and appropriate manner or not? Is it not really a very cynical con-job to tell the public one thing and allow something quite different later on when no one is really paying attention? Is it not an absolutely fundamental principle of sound business practice and good government that everyone does what they say they are going to do both now and in the future?  It's becoming clear that those who have warned for decades that our national parks are no place for commercial activity, have likely been right all along.  If Sunshine Village Ski Area is an example it is clear that there can be no trust whatsoever.

So what can we expect in the future?  Wel to answer that just look at what they do rather than listening to what they say. Watch and see how Parks Canada handles the issue of the Sunshine access road and the related impacts on environmental protection, wildlife, public safety and "visitor experience". It's a vital test for the future of the Mountain Parks and the trust, collaboration and benefits that hang in the balance. Thus far, what's happening on the Sunshine access road bodes poorly for the future. So far Parks Canada gets a big "F" on this test.

Sunshine Village must stay within its lease boundaries.  It must stop using a public highway as its private parking lot.  It must operate in full compliance with its lease and the law and it must engage in an open, transparent and legal public process for approval of any variation or expansion to that lease.

Please stand up for Banff National Park and the integrity of all the Canadian national park system.  Now is the time to show that ordinary Canadians care about these beautiful special places.

For more information please visit http://www.SunshineVillageWatch.com