Virtual Saskatchewan - 2 New Parks

by Dave Yanko

It’s nice thinking about fresh opportunities to enjoy our natural heritage when all we normally see, hear and read about is how successful we’ve become exploiting it. Minerals have been great for Saskatchewan’s economy, but a visit to a lake in the woods reminds us it's about more than that. Two provincial parks proposed for central Saskatchewan are welcome news, even if neither is entirely "new.''

The one proposed for the Emma and Anglin lakes region (map) north of Prince Albert is about 12,000 hectares (46 sq. miles) in area and includes some Crown land as well as the large Anglin Lake and smaller Emma Lake recreation sites already popular with many Saskatchewanians. The area contains almost 300 campsites.

More exciting to me – and “newer’’ to most, I suspect – is a proposed 30,000-hectare park (115 sq. miles) in the Porcupine Hills area of east-central Saskatchewan (map). It comprises two blocks of land separated by 40 km of forest located south and east of the Town of Hudson Bay. It embraces five comparatively tiny recreation sites and more than a dozen diminuitive lakes. It’s a much less popular region than Emma and Anglin, but not for people who live in the area.

“We’re closest to the western block but we’re the closest major community to the east block, too,’’ says Dave Ferguson, an economic development officer with the town. “And (the east block) does get fairly heavily used by people from this area.’’

The Ministry of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport (TPCS) proposes consolidating the Woody River, McBride Lake, Pepaw Lake, Parr Hill Lake and Saginas Lake recreation sites, and some adjacent Crown land, to form the new park. The existing recreation areas contain a total of 111 campsites, according to the government’s website.

TPCS is holding consultations in both new park areas throughout the spring and summer to present details of the plans and get input from stakeholders including members of the public, cottage owners, businesses, and First Nations and Métis people. Ferguson says Hudson Bay supports a new park for their area, although residents do have several concerns. For instance, Hudson Bay would like to see new cabin developments controlled, perhaps limited to 20 to 25 new units.

“Most of the lakes are pretty small and there’s not a lot of carrying capacity,’’ says Ferguson.

Perhaps a bigger concern relates to funding for these new parks.

“We want to see appropriate funding for the long-term plan and a realistic annual budget in place,’’ Ferguson said in a phone interview. “We’re concerned that these parks get proposed and then they get starved to death. My experience is that provincial parks tend to be chronically underfunded.’’

The province says it understands that concern and acknowledges its merit.

“Funding is always a concern; I think that’s fair,’’ TPCS spokesperson Lin Gallagher said in a phone interview. “(But) this government has followed through on its commitment to increase the operating and capital funding budgets,’’ she added.

An additional $4.9 million is earmarked for the parks 2011-12 capital budget, she said.

“And our priority with our capital program is to look at existing facilities, not building a lot of new ones but looking at where we have facilities that need to be replaced,’’ said Gallagher, an associate deputy minister.

Gallagher says if all goes according to plan, Saskatchewan could have two new provincial parks by spring 2012. The province currently has 34 provincial parks: four wilderness, 11 natural environment, 10 recreational, and nine historic (definitions). Determining appropriate designations for the new parks is part of the consultation process, said Gallagher.

To learn more about the proposed facilities or to see how you can provide input, visit TPCS’s new parks webpage.