Enforcement begins on Alberta's K-Country pass; NDP Opposition promises to axe it

It’s been more than a year since park users have had to pay to access Kananaskis Country, but for those who didn’t abide by the rules, there was often no or little consequences.

That changes this week, however, as the UCP government announced enforcement will start to happen.

Michael Roycroft, regional director of the park operations division in Kananaskis, says education and awareness have been the focus the first year the pass was rolled out.

“We also wanted to fully build out the exemptions portal to make sure those who qualified for exemptions were adequately taken care of in that regard,” said Roycroft.

The UCP says the pass has generated $13.3 million, all of which is to be reinvested in the region.

“I think it was fair giving people a year’s grace and make them realize how important this is,” said park user Ann Ceccanese. 

The province says the money has been used to hire more conservation officers, upgrade and operate facilities, including the Canmore Nordic Centre, groom trails and cover other expenditures.

“I’m definitely in favour of them. I’d like to support the parks and all the work that has to go into maintaining them,” said park user Mary Ellen Baldwin.

Staff will be scanning license plates and issuing $150 tickets to anyone who doesn’t have a pass and who is not exempt from payment. 

NDP leader Rachel Notley believes the park pass is unfair to low income families and said that if her party is re-elected, it would be scrapped.

“Our view is that these parks should be used by all Albertans and should be available to all Albertans regardless of the amount of money that they have,” she said.

Notley said that when the NDP were in power, $40 million was invested into K-country through tax dollars. 

John Varsek, who is in K-country often, says he doesn’t mind paying for the park pass but doesn’t feel the pass should’ve been implemented.

“I think our wilderness heritage is a citizen right. It should never have even come to this. This is what we in part pay taxes for," he said.

Varsek also says enforcement isn’t the solution. The government should make it more convenient for people to pay for the pass.

“You’ve got to make it easy. This is a parking lot so why isn’t there an electronic kiosk? The problem is actually one of infrastructure and less around reluctance of people to pay," he said.

Kananaskis sees about 5 million visitors a year. While Environment Minister Jason Nixon maintained in March that all the funds generated from the pass is going back into K-country, Notley says more clarity is needed to determine if current payouts are the promised upgrades or are simply fulfilling already scheduled budget increases.

“We have no way of knowing what they’re announcing these days are in fact incremental increases in investment to the park or in fact whether it’s just business as usual,” said Notley.

The park pass costs $15 per day per vehicle or $90 a year for two vehicles and a trailer license plate. 

The expectation is the pass will generate $15 million this year. 

Roycroft says people who forgot to pay for a pass and had their license scanned by an officer will have until 11:59 pm that same day to buy a pass and avoid a fine.

With files from The Canadian Press