After months of rampant speculation and rumours, Parks Canada finally released details this week about its plans to build a $66-million trail from Jasper to the Columbia Icefields.
The 107-km multi-use trail will run parallel to Highway 93 utilizing portions of the old road and it could eventually stretch to Lake Louise to connect with a bike trial along the Trans-Canada Highway.
In the summer, the trail will cater to cyclists, hikers and inline skaters and, in the winter, it will be open to cross country skiing, fat biking and snowshoeing.
It will also connect to a variety of existing attractions, trails and accommodations along the way, including campgrounds.
As details emerged this week about the new trail, environmental groups were quick to pounce on it and label it as another big, bad development project that has no place in a national park.
The groups rightly claimed the proposed trail will cut straight through sensitive caribou habitat and were right to call out the government for failing to get public input, but it鈥檚 also important to put things in perspective.
Like any proposed project, Parks Canada has promised to undertake a full environmental assessment and consult the public, stakeholders and Indigenous groups throughout 2016 and 2017 before making a final decision on the route.
The agency has also promised the trail will have no net ecological and cultural impact.
Unfortunately, these promises appear to hold little weight with environmental groups who remain skeptical that the government will consult the public and conduct environmental assessments in good faith.
Under the former Harper government, environmental groups grew accustomed to rushed public consultation periods and predetermined environmental assessments. They point to a series of projects approved by Parks Canada over the years as prime examples of the government鈥檚 failings to protect national parks from development, such as the expansion of Lake Louise Ski Resort, the proposed commercial accommodation at Maligne Lake and the Glacier Skywalk鈥揳ll of which were initially proposed under the Harper government.
Today, we have a new federal government at the helm that has promised to allow Canadians to meaningfully participate in public consultations and make environmental assessments for areas under federal jurisdiction credible again.
Rather than immediately jumping to the conclusion that this new trail will have an adverse affect on the environment, lets let the experts make that decision.
Yes, it will take trust and a renewed faith in Parks Canada and the federal government, but everyone deserves an opportunity to prove themselves, at least
