Send a Letter: Oppose the removal of public parks for private resorts

September 21, 2026

In less than two years, the All-Season Resorts Act (ASRA) has removed upwards of 1,090 hectares from the provincial park and protected area network in Alberta, and many of these changes were made without public consultation.

The Alberta Ministry of Tourism and Sport revealed the first three locations to receive the All-Season Resort Area designation in December 2025, and each was accompanied by changes to public parks and/or protected areas:

Fortress Mountain Resort had its lease expanded by the removal of 131 hectares from Spray Lakes Provincial Park.

Nakiska Ski Area was accompanied by 929 hectares of redesignated land from the Evan Thomas Provincial Recreation Area.

Castle Mountain Resort had a 54-hectare portion of their lease returned to Castle Provincial Park, though the boundary of the resort area was modified.

Now, as per two recent orders in council (329/2026 and 330/2026), the fourth All-Season Resort Area has been designated, the Lady MacDonald All-Season Resort Area, which removed and rezoned land from Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park. The redesignation was designed specifically to consider the Silver Tip Gondola project from Stone Creek Resorts. The Silvertip project would have a footprint of around 14 –15 hectares, yet mapping shows upwards of 30 hectares of the wildland provincial park were redesignated as part of the recent changes.

In addition to the above order in council, amendments to the Municipal Government Act (AR 223/2000, under order in council 331/2026) detail that all gondola developments are now excluded from the municipal planning process, removing the ability for municipalities to have oversight and offer input on development of gondolas within their jurisdictions.

Alberta’s own summary of comments from the engagement on this land use designation supports the protection of wildlife corridors for long-term ecosystem health. Comments frequently stated that parks and protected area boundaries should be maintained, and they raised concerns that this redesignation will set a worrisome precedent.

Protection of wildlife corridors, headwater ecosystems, and parks and protected areas is key for the long-term sustainability of tourism and wildlife across the Rockies. Supporting sustainable development choices and expanding parks and protected areas are proven alternatives and could spread the benefits of nature-based tourism across more communities in the Rockies.

Join us in demanding that Alberta stop removing protected areas and commit to restricting All-Season Resorts to land without parks or protected area status by sending a letter to the ministers of Tourism and Sport, Environment and Protected Areas, and Forestry and Parks.

Send a Letter: Oppose the removal of public parks for private resorts

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I am writing you today to condemn Alberta’s recent and repeated decisions to remove and redesignate land conserved within the province’s parks and protected areas system for All-Season Resorts.

Since being enacted, the All-Season Resorts Act (ASRA) has removed and rezoned over a thousand hectares of previously protected land:

• 131 hectares have been removed from Spray Valley Provincial Park for the Fortress Mountain Resort. Seventeen percent of the Fortress All-Season Resort Area falls within designated critical habitat for bull trout, which is listed as a threatened species under the Species at Risk Act (SARA).

• 929 hectares from Evan Thomas Provincial Recreation Area were removed from the PRA and added to the Nakiska Ski Area, disrupting important habitat and wildlife corridors, particularly for black bears and Alberta's threatened grizzly bear populations.

• The Silvertip project footprint would encompass around 14-15 hectares, but mapping shows as much as 30 hectares from Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park were removed to designate the Lady MacDonald All-Season Resort Area and make way for the development of the Silvertip Gondola. This redesignation could cause further habitat fragmentation and degradation in the sensitive Upper Silvertip Wildlife corridor which currently provides important ecological connectivity for grizzlies, bighorn sheep, wolves, elk and other species moving between Banff National Park and Kananaskis Provincial Park.

Protected areas and provincial parks are meant to be managed in the best interest of the public, and they are intended to offer environmental protection in perpetuity. Their designations and boundaries are not temporary placeholders for private resort development. Resort development in protected areas can destroy sensitive ecosystems, fragment and degrade quality of habitat, displace animals, and act as barriers to wildlife movement. The increased number and density of humans in the area as a result of resort development can also affect wildlife behaviour, and risks increasing human-wildlife conflicts. Like all development, resorts must be sited appropriately. To avoid harming important environments and species, Alberta’s networks of provincial parks protected area network must remain intact.

My requests are as follows:

• Minister Boitchenko must reverse his recent Order in Councils 329/2026 and 330/2026 and restore the previous boundaries of Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park.

• The Government of Alberta must ensure that land designated under the Provincial Parks Act, Wilderness Areas, Ecological Reserves, Natural Areas and Heritage Rangelands Act (WAERNAHR), and Willmore Wilderness Park Act remains as such, and only make amendments that would increase the size of protected areas or their level of protection.

• The Government of Alberta must commit to restricting All-Season Resort designations to land without park or protected area status.

I look forward to your confirmation of receipt and response to this email. Should your response and subsequent actions fail to address these requests, please provide justification for your decisions.

Sincerely,

CAPTCHA

Background

Bill 35, the All-Season Resorts Act (ASRA), was passed in December 2024. This legislation changed the way decisions are made around all-season resorts, moving away from the more legally robust and publicly transparent Natural Resource Conservation Board Act (NRCBA) processes, and creating a new regulator within the Ministry of Tourism and Sport.

ASRA gives the Ministry of Tourism and Sport the power to allocate public lands and redesignate protected areas for the creation of “All-Season Resort Areas.” These enable the ministry, through regulatory authority, to make authorizations under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act (EPEA), the Public Lands Act (PLA), and the Water Act in relation to All-Season Resort developments, such as whether to require an environmental assessment. These decisions are also unable to be reviewed due to privative clauses within the Act.

Through ASRA, the government cannot designate parks and protected areas as All-Season Resorts — but there is a workaround. ASRA enables those parks and/or protected areas to have their park or protected area designation rescinded, and once those designations are gone, there is nothing restricting redesignation to All-Season Resort Areas. This is what has already occurred with both Fortress and Nakiska, and now also with Lady Macdonald — parks and protected areas were removed and redesignated as All-Season Resort Areas to allow for the expansion of leases and the development of All-Season Resorts. In the case of Fortress and Nakiska there was no public consultation process; however, while Lady Macdonald did have public consultation, and even though public feedback emphasized provincial park and protected area boundaries should be maintained to ensure long-term conservation, the redesignation still moved forward. This brings Lady MacDonald into the second step in the All-Season Resorts process seen below, “Expression of Interest,” which we will see from Stone Creek Resorts in the near future.

Figure 1: Overview of The All-Season Resorts Process, as per the All-Season Resorts Policy.

Many public lands include critical species-at-risk habitat, wildlife corridors, and other environmentally significant areas that are unsuitable for tourism development. Unfortunately, through ASRA, the removal of public lands is now occurring, demonstrating a shift from ecological expertise and public opinion to tourism-forward priorities and investor confidence.