Cutbacks
This empty desk, being sold at a government auction in Golden Ears Park is a sad reminder of all the parks workers who have lost their jobs since 2001.
Across British Columbia provincial parks are fighting for their lives. In the last three years many parks have been closed, campsites, garbage pickup and boat launches discontinued and washrooms and water pumps shut down. Funding has been withdrawn from all provincial park interpretative programs, including school programs and guided walks, making British Columbia and Mississippi the only jurisdictions in North America without such services. Parks passes for many disabled people have been clawed back and services withdrawn from over 1,000 forest service campsites. And although BC’s parks contribute $170 million to the provincial tax base, the budget for parks has been slashed again to just $35 million.
The onslaught of cuts to park services is on top of dramatic cuts to parks staff. Already radically reduced under the previous provincial government, the new Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection cut park staff by a further 30%. With only 120 field staff remaining there is now just one field person for every seven parks in BC. In Strathcona Provincial Park, for example, there is one full-time staff person for the park’s 200,000 visitors. Compare this to the provincial parks in Alberta’s Kananaskis Country which have a full time staff person for every 49,000 visitors(5).
Additionally, the Park Extension Division, the division that ran the highly successful park volunteer program, has been disbanded despite the fact that staff generated nearly double their wages and benefits through creative volunteer and fundraising programs(6).
