As Canada celebrates its 150th birthday, mountain parks are bracing for an onslaught of tourists taking advantage of free park passes.
The idea is to get Canadians out enjoying the natural beauty of our country, but heavy traffic and snarled parking lots could spoil the experience. Banff is trying to get ahead of the rush with a few ideas to ease the problem.
“We need to have a place where people can park their vehicle and get on to, my suggestion, free and frequent shuttles into the downtown core area of Banff, but also out into the park,” said Karen Sorensen, Mayor of Banff.
Of course, plans like that cost money, and the town is looking for support from Parks Canada.
It won’t only be a financial cost, according to wildlife experts, who say wild animals will be put at risk due to the spike in human visitors.
“When you have extra people and extra cars out on the highways, you have more animals getting squashed,” said Ben Gadd, Wildlife Expert. “Trash, bears getting into food, all kinds of things happen when you have more people.”
Gadd said he supports the idea of getting people out into nature, but said they need tour guides to explain the rules, both to keep wildlife and people safe, and to avoid parks becoming clogged with trash.
Some mountain park users love the idea of having more people enjoy the parks, including businesses that stand to do well with more customers on the way.
“I think we are going to be busy, the town will be very busy during the day,” said Tommy
Soukas, owner of Tommy’s Pub.
Four million people visited Banff last year, and some predict there could be an additional half million in 2017.
