I am concerned over the continued closure of Garibaldi Provincial Park.
With British Columbia’s restart plan well into phase 3 and many businesses/operators back in business, including movie theatres, retail stores, restaurants/pubs and other places people gather, it should go without saying that a park as large as Garibaldi Provincial Park, at 1950 square kilometers, including 90 kilometers of formal trails as well as countless places to wander, could and should be open for use.
Alice Lake Provincial Park is open, and campsites along with recreational areas are packed with visitors. Cypress Provincial Park, Shannon Falls Provincial Park and Murrin Provincial Park are all open as well, have less overall square kilometers of space, and can receive much more intensive use.
The wide-open space of Garibaldi Park naturally, easily and obviously supports any recommended physical distancing measures.
Porteau Cove Provincial Park is open to visitors, and it seems unreasonable that the same cannot be said of a park that is a thousand times larger. At the very least it should be open for day use.
As of today, there is still no date posted on the BC Parks website informing the public when they can expect an opening of the park, nor any explanation for the continued closure.
The information that has been communicated from the parks board is that it is a high-traffic park and that they don’t expect it to be opened anytime soon as they are concerned with the influx of visitors to our communities.
This does not make sense when all the above parks mentioned are open and accessible and our communities are busier than ever.
The opening of Garibaldi Park would help spread the visitors out into larger spaces which in turn would reduce the risk of overcrowding. In addition, without any international visitors I’d expect the high volume they may have experienced in past years would be greatly minimized.
Parks in the Sea to Sky are enjoyed by residents of both the Sea to Sky Corridor and Lower Mainland.
Many local small businesses also rely on access to these parks to operate, offer employment opportunities and provide services to our B.C. residents with the hope of staying in business.
British Columbians are being encouraged by the Provincial Health Officer to safely enjoy outdoor spaces and naturally the entire corridor is seeing increased visitation, particularly on weekends.
As a result, the fewer faces and wide-open spaces of Garibaldi Provincial Park are needed.
Sean O’Keefe is a local business owner. He recently wrote the above letter to George Heyman, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.
