MP Richard Cannings has supported a national park in the South Okanagan ever since he graduated from university in the 1970s and got a contract to research potential locations for Parks Canada.

But Cannings is also clear that the proposed national park reserve must be different from parks like Banff, Jasper or Kluane.

Unlike those parks in largely wilderness areas, the South Okanagan is much more populated and much of the land is currently ranched.

“We have to create a park that will take those interests into account so it won’t affect the livelihoods of people that work on that land,” he says.

He also notes that Parks Canada more recently has shown they are willing to create national parks that aren’t made from the same cookie cutter as traditional parks.

One recent example is the Rouge National Urban Park on the edge of Toronto, a park that is so different it has its own federal legislation.

Establishing that park involved numerous compromises between governments, local residents, farmers, conservationists and recreational users.

While the circumstances here are entirely different, there’s no reason that kind of flexibility can’t be applied in the South Okanagan-Similkameen.

Indeed, when federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna was in Osoyoos at the end of October to announce the park was moving forward, she made exactly that point.

But Cannings pointed to another problem – the lack of willingness by Parks Canada to come to the area and answer questions.

“I’ve been trying to get Parks Canada on the ground to answer questions a lot of people have,” he said.

One positive step occurred last week when Parks Canada posted extensive information on its website, breaking a silence that has been in place since 2012.

But it seems Parks Canada wants to complete discussions between federal, provincial and First Nations governments and come up with a concept before engaging the public substantively.

Public discussions will be difficult because there’s a segment of the community that only wants to stop a park and not talk about how it can work.

But in the absence of public discussions, misinformation, unanswered questions and distrust will only continue.