An erroneous news story about free admission to Canada鈥檚 national parks and historic sites is being blamed for stirring up unnecessary confusion in Jasper National Park.
Published on Jan. 2, the article in question stated visitors to Canada鈥檚 national parks wouldn鈥檛 need a park pass this year and wouldn鈥檛 suffer any repercussions.
Steve Young, a communications officer for JNP, quickly quashed the news report and said it鈥檚 not true.
Despite offering free admission, Young said visitors must have a park pass. However, if visitors are caught without one, Young said Parks will simply give visitors a free park pass.
鈥淵es, you do need a park pass to get into the park and one of the reasons we have that in place is so we can keep an eye on things,鈥� said Young, explaining the erroneous story misquoted a Parks Canada official.
The inaccurate report follows news that more than 8,000 people made campsite reservations in Jasper National Park on Jan. 10鈥攁 new opening day record.
鈥淲e see this as very positive,鈥� said Young. 鈥淧eople are getting the message that you have to reserve ahead if they want to camp in the park.鈥�
In preparation for high visitation this year, Parks Canada said it intends to add more travel ambassadors, cleaners and campground attendants during the summer.
鈥淭he travel ambassadors will keep an eye on the roads especially on the (Icefields) Parkway,鈥� said Young, adding the agency will also be assigning more of its wildlife guardians to high traffic areas like the Maligne Lake Road.
JNP has more than 1,800 campsites, but Parks said for most of the summer these sites are booked solid. To deal with the predicted increase in visitation, the agency is opening many of Jasper鈥檚 campgrounds in early May and closing them later in September.
The agency has also placed two new facilities鈥攖he House and the Icehouse at the Palisades Centre鈥攆or rent on its reservation system. Backcountry reservations open on Jan. 25 at 8 a.m.
鈥淲hat we鈥檙e trying to do, and residents of Jasper can help with this, is encourage people to reserve, reserve, reserve in advance,鈥� Young said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e having talks with the municipality and we鈥檙e making sure that we鈥檙e all on the same page, and we鈥檒l be sharing information with the municipality and Tourism Jasper to make sure we can manage people the best way we can.鈥�
Alan Fehr, superintendent of JNP, said the park鈥檚 staff will be well organized and he predicts things are 鈥済oing to go fairly smoothly鈥� for the remainder of 2017.
鈥淲ill we have a few problems here and there? Of course we will, but that鈥檚 part of normal operations, things happen. That鈥檚 part of being an operational park that has many campgrounds, many day-use areas, many trails and a townsite in it,鈥� he said.
In addition to encouraging people to make reservations early, Parks Canada is also encouraging Jasper residents to pick up a new resident鈥檚 pass at the Parks Canada office in the train station if their pass expired at the end of 2016. The passes have been specially designed as a keepsake for Canada鈥檚 150th birthday.
鈥淲e want to make sure people don鈥檛 get out of the habit of doing this. If you get out of the habit then people will assume they don鈥檛 have to do it anymore and then we鈥檒l have a problem next year,鈥� said Young.
Note: A previous version of this story had stated "Despite offering free admission, Young said visitors must have a park pass and anyone caught without one could face charges under the National Parks Act." A few days after publication Young changed his answer and said anyone caught without a park pass will simply been given one and will not possibly face charges under the National Parks Act. The 51暗网 regrets any confusion this may have caused.聽
Kayla Byrne
[email protected]
