This pandemic has pushed parks and wild places in the Sea to Sky to the brink. Inadequate funding for BC Parks before COVID-19 has been amplified by greater demand from people looking for a safe place to be outside their homes.
This demand is not likely to go away once the pandemic is in the rear-view mirror.
In British Columbia, thanks to the foresight of our predecessors, we are lucky to have a healthy land base protected from resource extraction through parks and other management areas. Unfortunately, our climate crisis dictates that conservation is no longer enough. We need to move toward restoration and recognize that nature is a critical element of healthy infrastructure, and the services it provides are worth billions of dollars.
A low-end valuation for the services provided by a forest is $1,000 per hectare, per year. This assigns an economic value to services like water filtration, flood control, air purification, wildlife habitat, carbon storage, and opportunities for recreation, tourism, education, and awareness. It doesn’t include benefits we haven’t yet calculated: physical and mental health, cultural values, social equity, and harmony. Nor does it account for the services provided by streams, rivers, wetlands, lakes, and glaciers.
So even using a conservative figure, here’s a back of the napkin calculation: 14 million hectares of BC Parks provide about $14 billion per year in services that we need to live on this planet. As a rough rule of thumb used in asset management best practices, we should be investing at least 1% of that value in stewardship and maintenance of this key natural asset. That is, $140 million per year.
Yet the provincial investment in B.C. parks is currently $40 million, less than the budget for Metro Vancouver’s regional parks. It is less than 1/1000th of the total B.C. budget. We currently spend only $8 per British Columbian on a natural inheritance that is the envy of the world. Three full-time park rangers for the whole Sea to Sky Corridor? Tourism Pemberton forced to step in for portable toilets at overcrowded trailheads? A charitable BC Parks Foundation to fill the gaps in public spending? “Chronically underfunded”? That’s an understatement!
In a previous, The Chief, MLA Jordan Sturdy [“Addressing yahoos in Squamish’s backcountry, published Jan. 28] mused about education, enforcement co-ordination, and the way things used to be. Rather than speaking for a BC Liberal plan from two governments ago, or remembering what it was like in the backcountry 30 years ago, we need our local MLA to represent us in the here and now. I see that Mr. Sturdy spoke about BC Parks in the Legislature in December, speculating about another $2 million budget cut to parks. I’m glad that he appreciates our parks and wants better for them (I agree!). However, we need to do more than wax philosophical on this critical issue for our region. We need a concrete plan to get to adequate parks funding. We must highlight the economic argument, and we need advocacy for our parks directly to Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy George Heyman and government staff. This is arguably even more important in opposition than in government, and Mr. Sturdy is a knowledgeable representative who can advocate credibly on this issue.
Lately, the Sea to Sky is being passed over on issues fundamental to our identity and functionality, key issues like tourism recovery and regional transit. Funding parks should be non-partisan, apple-pie public policy that is understood to pay for itself, and more. Proper funding would improve education and enforcement, but more importantly, it also says loudly and clearly: “We Value This.” And that leads to better understanding and wider appreciation of our natural assets, which is a good thing.
We need a strategic and evidence-based re-investment target that honours our natural heritage: an increase to the BC Parks budget by $100 million annually to $140 million. A commitment to the future through recognition of the value of the services our protected areas provide for us. This means an extra $20 per British Columbian, to steward our irreplaceable natural places for the next seven generations. It’s less than most of us spend on coffee or Netflix, and it is both a symbolic and pragmatic projection of our Sea to Sky values.
Jeremy Valeriote is a geological and environmental engineer and was the BC Green candidate for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky in the last provincial election.
