Latest news with #provincialparks
CTV News
3 days ago
- CTV News
Upper Canada Village now part of Canada Strong Pass
Upper Canada Village is now part of the Canada Strong Pass as more museums and provincial parks get added across the country. Implemented in June, the Canada Strong Pass is funded by the federal government to allow for free or discounted admission to national parks, as well by VIA Rail, to promote Canadian tourism. Now both Upper Canada Village, east of Morrisburg, and Kingston's Fort Henry, part of the St Lawrence Parks Commission, have been added to the list as the initiative expands. The pass means those 17 and under will be given free admission, while those aged 18 to 24 get half off. Canadians are not required to sign up for the pass which runs until September 2, 2025. Upper Canada Village has been a staple in the region since 1961, offering participants a glimpse of the lifestyle in Canada during the 1860s.
CTV News
6 days ago
- CTV News
Nova Scotia spending $12.8 million to improve 40 provincial parks
Paddlers are pictured on the water at Islands Provincial Park in Shelburne, N.S. (Source: Province of Nova Scotia) Nova Scotia is making upgrades to provincial parks. The province will spend $12.8 million to improve 40 parks in 2025-26 as part of the capital plan commitment of $28.6 million for provincial parks from 2022 to 2027, said a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) news release. Improvements to roads, trails and accessibility will make parks more enjoyable, said the department in the release. Upgrades will include: paved roads natural playgrounds washrooms beach access trail improvements parking lot upgrades water and septic upgrades 'Our provincial parks are loved by Nova Scotians and attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to spend time at the beach, in the woods and on the water,' said Tory Rushton, Minister of Natural Resources. 'That's why we're investing in improvements that make our parks safe, enjoyable and more accessible while also boosting tourism and supporting local businesses.' The province outlined its plans for Dollar Lake Provincial Park in the release. Nova Scotia is in the third year of a $1.6 million multi-year redevelopment at the park to upgrade 38 campsites with water and electrical services, add an accessible campsite and build new accessible washrooms. More than one million people visited provincial parks in 2024 with more than 95,000 overnight stays, said the release – a 10 per cent increase from 2024. DNR reminds campers there is a $25,000 fine for violating burn restrictions and to take precautions to prevent tick exposure. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
CBC
17-06-2025
- CBC
Want to travel in Manitoba? Some restrictions may apply
The Bur Oak Trail is a one-kilometre, stroller-friendly walking loop sandwiched between the main road running through Birds Hill Provincial Park and residential homes on Mulder Drive in the Rural Municipality of Springfield. The trail is 20 metres from the nearest pavement. You'd have to walk it seven times to rack up 10,000 steps. No one would mistake this Winnipeg-area trail for wilderness — but it's off-limits right now due to sweeping provincial restrictions on backcountry travel during this unusual spring wildfire season. The curious case of the Bur Oak closure is not an isolated instance. Consider Turtle Mountain Provincial Park, which is 343 kilometres away from the nearest active wildfire in Manitoba, an 89-square-kilometre blaze under control in Sandilands Provincial Forest. It takes three and a half hours in a car to move between these two natural areas. Yet travel on most of the lakes and all the trails in Turtle Mountain is forbidden due to the same backcountry restrictions imposed upon all provincial parks on provincial parcels of Crown land. Then there's Riding Mountain National Park, which is very much in Manitoba, but falls under federal jurisdiction. All 370 kilometres of trails in Riding Mountain are open, along with with 36 backcountry campsites you can reserve right now with a couple of clicks on the Parks Canada reservation page. Similarly, the vast majority of parks, trails, wilderness areas and backcountry campsites in other Canadian provinces and most U.S. states are open regardless of the 2025 wildfire threat, save for those actually experiencing a wildfire, located close to a fire or considered unsafe due to the wobbly, charred tree trunks left behind from a recent blaze. For decades, Manitoba's practice of enacting blanket restrictions on backcountry travel by ordinary people on foot, on bicycles or in canoes or kayaks has stood out as unusual in North America. Civil servants and politicians alike have not been able to elucidate the rationale for the policy, beyond the insistence that these restrictions — which typically do not apply to licensed outfitters and resource-extraction industries — are necessary to prevent more fires from materializing. No provincial administration, regardless of whether the New Democrats or Progressive Conservatives are in power, has been able explain why Parks Canada, other provinces and U.S. states tend to draw circles around actual fires and tell people not to wander into them, while Manitoba attempts to enshroud every prairie crocus, poplar and pine cone in the province within the public-policy equivalent of bubble wrap. Efforts to get officials to explain the restrictions vary, depending on who's doing the talking. "We put them in place because of the potential for human-caused fires," said Kristin Hayward, the assistant deputy minister in charge of Manitoba's wildfire service and conservation officer service, speaking during a wildfire briefing on Monday. "We want to minimize people out on the landscape in places where fires could start." Hayward said the policy is not due to a lack of staff or other resources within Manitoba. But there are noticeable differences between the way this province manages backcountry use compared to other jurisdictions. Right next door in Ontario, backcountry travel in most provincial parks requires people to register, pay nightly fees and, usually, file a travel plan. This practice is in place in a variety of parks, including road-accessible Rushing River, relatively unvisited Woodland Caribou and the heavily-paddled canoe destination of Quetico. Registration allows Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources to manage visitor numbers, locate paddlers and hikers in the event of an emergency and collect some revenue to support the activities of staff within these parks. Manitoba typically does not manage backcountry travel. Hayward can be correct in stating this is not due to a lack of resources when this sort of management simply has not been a priority in this province. According to Premier Wab Kinew, however, a lack of provincial firefighting resources is what he calls "the actual reason" for the backcountry travel ban. "We can not afford to pull resources into dealing with the local fire situation in different parts of the province, given the severity that we see in the north," Kinew said in a scrum on June 6. The implication here is permit-holding outfitters, logging companies and miners can be trusted not to spark forest fires, while ordinary people carrying backpacks and paddles can not. Mike Moyes, Manitoba minister of the environment and climate change, made this explicitly clear last week. "We want to ensure that the resources are being put to the areas of greatest use in fighting these wildfires," Moyes said in an interview on June 10. "If we're having folks that inadvertently cause a wildfire, that can be really catastrophic in terms of of human safety, but also in terms of pulling resources from other areas." There are times when other jurisdictions have adopted a Manitoba-style blanket backcountry travel ban. Ontario, for example, enacted one for several weeks in 2023, when forests to the north and west of Lake Superior were on fire. This 2025 fire season in Manitoba has been significant. So far, 9,012 square kilometres have burned, which works out to 1.6 per cent of the province's total land mass. In other words, it is unsurprising to see the province impose blanket backcountry restrictions in this year of all years. Such restrictions were imposed during less severe fire seasons in the recent past, including those in 2006, 2011 and 2021. The question for officials is whether Manitoba's policies governing backcountry travel can be changed in a manner that would preclude the need for these restrictions during future wildfire emergencies. Climate changes has made more severe fire seasons inevitable. It is unclear whether Manitoba can adapt.
CTV News
10-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
Further reopening of Whiteshell Provincial Park expected to start tomorrow
A sign for Whiteshell Provincial Park is pictured on May 20, 2025. (CTV News Winnipeg)
CBC
04-06-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Province reopening more areas of Whiteshell park, including campgrounds at Caddy and West Hawk lakes
More permanent residents, cottagers and business owners can now return to areas of Caddy Lake and West Hawk Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park, the province said Tuesday. As of 8 a.m. Tuesday, Caddy Lake blocks 6, 7, 8, along with Island Block and Green Bay Resort, were reopened to permanent residents, cottagers and commercial operators, the province said in an online update. At West Hawk Lake, McDougall's Landing, Big Island Landing and Indian Bay also reopened on Tuesday. Campgrounds at Brereton, Caddy, West Hawk and White lakes will reopen for seasonal and nightly campers on Friday, June 6, at 4 p.m., the Manitoba government said in its most recent fire bulletin. An out-of-control wildfire that spread into Manitoba from the area around Ingolf, Ont., still covered a total of more than 36,000 hectares as of Tuesday afternoon, the province said, including over 5,000 hectares on the Manitoba side. An evacuation order is still in effect for some parts of the park, while closures remain for Caddy Lake blocks 1, 2, 5 and the public boat launch at Block 4. The province said Big Whiteshell, Crowduck, Nora and Florence lakes will also stay closed, as will the Caddy Lake tunnels. Campgrounds at Big Whiteshell Lake will remain closed until at least June 19. But as the Whiteshell reopened further, two provincial parks in northwestern Manitoba were ordered to close Tuesday. Grass River and Wekusko Falls are both under a mandatory evacuation order, the province said, with access restricted to all park users including campers, commercial operators and day visitors. Grass River and Wekusko Falls are both close to wildfires burning out of control near Sherridon, Wanless and Flin Flon. The Sherridon fire — the largest of the three fires — is more than 112,000 hectares in size and is still out of control, the province said. All trails and water routes in all Manitoba provincial parks remain closed, the government said Tuesday. There are 27 active wildfires across Manitoba as of Tuesday afternoon.
