Parks are for people and Alberta takes great pride in welcoming millions of visitors every year to come explore its provincial parks and enjoy the benefits they offer. Alberta’s government will be conducting a two-phase public engagement process to gather feedback from Albertans, park visitors, Indigenous communities and community organizations to inform the development of a new Plan for Parks.
The Plan for Parks engagement provides an opportunity to hear from Albertans on topics such as understanding new and emerging trends in recreation and camping, ensuring environmental responsibility, advancing reconciliation and continuing to deliver great visitor experiences for current and future generations.
“Our parks provide truly spectacular outdoor experiences, and we need to make sure their unique beauty is preserved for our children and our children’s children. We want Albertans to share their vision with us, as we create a renewed and modern plan to bring Alberta’s parks into the future.”
“More and more Albertans are using parks and public lands and the Friends of Kananaskis is excited by the Alberta government’s commitment to engaging the public on creating and implementing a vision for the future of parks across the province. As a proud partner of the Alberta government for the past 28 years, we look forward to continuing to promote the recreational use and sustainability of our parks and public lands.”
“We are excited to contribute our perspective on supporting the growth of tourism and outdoor recreation in the province to meet visitor demand and enhance opportunities and connecting with the beautiful landscapes Alberta has to offer.”
As more visitors explore Alberta’s provincial parks, creating more recreation opportunities will be a top priority of the new plan. This updated vision will help Albertans to enjoy the great outdoors by creating additional campsites and improving access to activities like kayaking and canoeing.
“As Albertans, we love our provincial parks. The public engagement process will allow visitors and users a valuable opportunity to share their thoughts, ideas, and opinions on shaping the direction of Alberta Parks.”
Public engagement will begin June 19 and run for 60 days. Albertans are invited to share their thoughts on an updated vision, guiding principles and options for the future of parks. Feedback will be collected through an online survey.
All feedback will be collected, analyzed and used to create a new draft plan. This draft will be shared with Albertans publicly to ensure that it reflects the diverse input received. This will support making any required changes to the plan before it is finalized.
Key facts
- Alberta’s full parks and protected areas system protects more than 4.55 million hectares of representative and special landscapes.
- The new Plan for Parks focuses on 78 provincial parks, 193 provincial recreation areas, and 34 wildland provincial parks.
- The total area of parks under the Provincial Parks Act has grown from just over 2 million hectares in 2009 to more than 3.82 million hectares in 2024.
- Alberta’s Provincial Parks Act is one of the oldest pieces of parks legislation in Canada, first established in 1930 and most recently amended in 2000.
- The current value of Alberta’s parks to the provincial economy is close to $1 billion in GDP, $400 million in labour income and nearly 9,000 jobs per year.