MP Alex Atamanenko (Photo supplied)
The fragile ecosystem of the South Okanagan-Lower Similkameen cannot be protected without the creation of a national park, MP Alex Atamanenko told the House of Commons last week.
The federal Member of Parliament for B.C. Southern Interior made the comments in a speech to debate a Senate bill on a national park in the Northwest Territories just a day before the House recessed for its winter break.
“I don’t trust any provincial government from any political stripe to protect this forever,” Atamanenko said in a follow-up interview on Friday. “There are always pressures on provincial governments to back down and allow development. We’ve seen that with the ALR (Agricultural Land Reserve).”
The MP acknowledged that both major provincial parties, including his provincial NDP counterparts, have succumbed to pressure for development.
Atamanenko told the House that failing to protect the area as a national park would leave it open to the threat of mining and development, including houses, “regardless of what safeguards the provincial government of the day implements.”
Atamanenko’s speech, which ran close to 10 minutes, started by addressing Bill S-5, which would create the Nááts’inch’oh National Park Reserve in the western Northwest Territories.
For the bulk of his speech, however, he spoke about the South Okanagan-Lower Similkameen.
The provincial Liberal government broke off talks with Parks Canada about establishing a national park in this region almost three years ago. Current Environment Minister Mary Polak met with regional stakeholders on both sides of the issue a couple of weeks ago.
The MP said he learned that morning that there were a couple speaking slots left to debate Bill S-5 and he thought it would be a good opportunity to raise the local national park issue as he finished off the year.
“I strongly urge the government of British Columbia to work with the federal government and to re-engage with the federal government, First Nations and other stakeholders to make the national park in the South Okanagan-Similkameen happen,” Atamanenko concluded.
The MP acknowledged concerns raised in the past about First Nations involvement, the ability of a Penticton helicopter school to continue using the area for training and use of the area for ranching.
The Okanagan Nation Alliance has since issued a feasibility study supporting continued discussions with Parks Canada as long as Syilx title, rights and interests are protected and respected, he noted.
The other two sources of concern – the helicopter school and ranching – have been addressed by Parks Canada and “should be a vital part of any negotiations between the provincial and federal governments,” Atamanenko told the House.
The provincial government abruptly broke off talks on the issue early in 2012 saying it didn’t think there was local support for a national park. Without provincial participation, the federal government also withdrew.
Atamanenko said that in 2012 he spoke with former federal Environment Minister Peter Kent, who assured him that if the provincial government’s position changed, the federal government would again get involved in the process.
Atamanenko said he has not had a chance to discuss the issue with Kent’s successor, Leona Aglukkaq, but he said a letter from her to national park advocate Doreen Olson reaffirming the federal government’s support for increasing national park protected areas “gives us hope.”
Atamanenko is less hopeful the provincial government will change its opposition to a national park, despite recent outreach to stakeholders on all sides by B.C. Environment Minister Mary Polak.
“There’s pressure on her not to do that from the Grasslands Coalition and Greg (Norton) and those folks,” said Atamanenko. “And (MLA) Linda (Larson) of course has dug her heels in as far as the national park. It’s kind of difficult for Mary Polak, I think, to navigate there, so I don’t know. My hope is that she would try to re-engage.”
Atamananko said he briefly discussed the issue with Larson at an event earlier this fall.
“She said … she would like to have some other process to protect it other than a national park and she would like to explore other possibilities,” he said. “I didn’t get the impression from her that she was in favour of re-starting those negotiations with the federal government.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
