Sack Bay
Windy Bay, Sitka Spruce
FEDERAL ENVIRONMENT MINISTER ASKS PARK LOVERS TO HELP BUY NATIONAL PARKS IN SOUTH MORESBY
Suzanne Blais-Grenier, Federal Environment Minister, wants private donations to the federal purse to help buy a national marine and land based park in South Moresby. In a letter dated April 30, to Colleen McCrory, a Director of Western Canada Wilderness Committee, the Minister says, "New parks are important" but the Federal Government "cannot afford the burden of paying all the costs:' She further states that if the "conservation community" launched a "fund raising concept" to establish National Parks in South Moresby that she would be "most willing to cooperate in its efforts"
Such an idea is not new. In the battle to save the redwoods in Southern California it was the nickles and dimes, the allowances and lunch money of hundreds of thousands of school children that helped place the last of the redwoods in parks.
Mt. Yatze peak, Burnaby, Huxley, and Ramsay Islands in background
Camping on ridge of San Christovol Mts.
However the redwoods were on private land not on public (crown) land as South Moresby and most of the other wilderness park proposal areas are in Canada. The Minister's proposal has provoked a mixed reaction in the environmental community. Some feel that any endeavour to save South Moresby is justified. Others believe this proposal sets a dangerous precedent.
The detractors say that our national and provincial park systems will never be completed if environment groups have to raise millions of dollars to buy each wilderness area. Our park systems presently represent less than half the unique land and seascapes in western and northern Canada.
The country needs several hundred new parks to save outstanding places needing preservation.
Traditionally, non-government organizations educate the public, garnering wide public support which they know is needed to spur government action. Traditionally, Canadian governments do not act only on behalf of special interest groups who voluntarily raise and donate the most money to the public treasury, money which bribes government action on a particular issue.
Such an idea is counter to our democratic principles.
Ascending Mt. Yatze, Island Bay in the background
Colleen McCrory explains it another way, "When the Federal government decided recently to change the Armed Forces' uniforms at a reported cost of $1,000 per soldier, the Minister of Defense did not ask the veterans groups that lobbyed for the change to share the cost, as if they would be the only ones to benefit. Why should we be treated differently? Why should concerned citizens be asked to buy back publicly owned crown land so that all children in the future can behold the splendor of our country's natural heritage?"
