Brynn's Adventures

Can Parks Protect What They Can’t Fund?

The Canadian Government’s 2025 ‘Canada Strong Pass’ is now in effect until September to promote domestic tourism, but I can’t help but wonder what these alleged benefits for domestic tourists will mean for Canada’s National Parks, their projects, and their employees.

The pass includes free admission for all visitors to national historic sites, national parks, and national marine conservation areas administered by Parks Canada as well as a 25% discount on camping fees in these areas. Source.

The Parks Canada website clearly states that the revenue generated from park admission supports visitor programs, services, facilities, and conservation efforts. So what will this immense reduction in revenue for Parks Canada mean for our National Parks? Will free admission exacerbate existing over-tourism problems such as crowding and human-wildlife conflicts? How will this cut in revenue affect the visitor programs, services, facilities, and conservation efforts that are usually supported in part from admission and camping fees?

There is already growing concern at the rise in human-wildlife-conflicts in some of Canada’s most popular national parks. Two grizzly bears were killed in Banff NP already this year on the railway, and last year a rare white grizzly bear and her two cubs were killed in a vehicle accident near by at Yoho NP.

As of that incident “Parks Canada estimates there are approximately 90 grizzly bears in Alberta’s Banff National Park and British Columbia’s Yoho and Kootenay national parks. While the exact numbers of the bears fluctuate year to year, the population is considered stable. From 2019 to now, 13 grizzly bears have been killed in the parks, with four killed in the first half of 2024 — the highest tally to date.” (source.) When you add on the most recent incidents, 15 grizzly bears have been killed since 2019, that’s 16.7% of the local population.

Additionally, last year two people were devastatingly killed by a malnourished, elderly grizzly bear while hiking in the Banff backcountry. And the other day I saw an Instagram reel of a black bear begging, like a pet dog, at someone on the side of the road, hoping to be fed. Bears in popular national parks are becoming increasingly habituated to humans which is devastating. As bears and other wildlife become more comfortable and begin to rely on humans as a source of food, not only will they lose their skills and instincts for hunting and foraging, but dangerous behaviour will become more common. And unfortunately, a fed bear is a dead bear, as conservation officers deem habituated animals unsuitable for live in national parks and take matters into their own hands by killing habituated bears in the name of public safety.

Is inviting MORE people into National Parks, for free, beneficial for the parks’ original purpose? To protect and preserve outstanding natural landscapes and environments, protecting critical species and preserving ecosystems?

So far, I haven’t seen any articles addressing what this means for our National Parks, and their employees. It’s particularly interesting considering that in March of this year, Parks Canada budget documents indicated $14.1 billion in cuts over the next 5 years, bracing for a $26.8 million budget cut in 2025. Not only does this conflict with Canada’s 30×30 commitment to protect 30% of our land, water and oceans by 2030 but also raises concern about conservation efforts. If Parks Canada can’t keep up with their current conservation goals, and efforts, what does a bigger budget cut mean for these projects?

As someone who has worked in Canada’s parks system and studied tourism, I believe these are critical questions worth asking. Although it’s exciting to see incentives for domestic travel, we need to talk about the long-term trade-offs, especially when it comes to sustainability, staffing and stewardship. We need to ensure we’re not celebrating short-term gain at long-term cost.

I’d love to hear from others working in tourism, conservation, parks; how do you think this will play out?

Read more in the news here:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/details-on-canada-strong-pass-tourism-initiative-to-be-revealed-monday/

https://www.sootoday.com/local-news/parks-canada-budget-cuts-threaten-local-conservation-efforts-10448818

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/03/21/news/parks-canada-cuts-lapsed-funding