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Province Wide
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BC Parks
- BC Parks License Plate Program
BC Parks License Plate Program
Frosty Mountain Signage application Denied
- Written by Paul Kubik
- Hits: 1688
FROSTY MOUNTAIN SIGNAGE AND SIGHT LINES APPLICATION FOR PEF FUNDING DENIED
I submitted an application in June to the Park Enhancement Fund that was denied.
The project would have nailed up orange, reflective trail diamonds at regular intervals. The markers will be nailed high enough so they are not buried by winter snow which is typically two or three meters in depth at higher elevations. Sight lines will be improved by trimming lower branches along the trail and cutting back encroaching vegetation.
The reason for denial was not given. However, the accompanying letter said:
Selecting recipients from an outstanding and varied group of applicants is always a challenging task.
I asked for a list of the successful PEF projects. The project administrator for PEF replied:
We are currently just finalizing the regional PEF funding, and a final list with all of the informaon you are asking for will be shared on our website in September/October.
Half of 2020 BC Parks Enhancement Fund Grants to go to Recreation Initiatives
- Written by Chris Ludwig
- Hits: 1625
Update
The BC Parks Enhancement Fund this year will direct half of the $240,000 of its Parks Enhancement Fund Grants to recreation initiatives, and the other to conservation initiatives.
Backcountry BC exposed a heavy conservation bias in how BC Parks spends all of the money raised through the BC Parks License Plate program, which is also administered through the BC Parks Enhancement Fund.
This raises new questions - is there bias in the grants program as well? Who and what are receiving PEF grants? Are any hiking trail, access and structure projects getting funded there is it all going to other kinds of projects?
Time for some more heavy digging on my part. As usual, I will return with a full report soon.
Projects Funded by the BC Parks License Plate/Park Enhancement Fund Programs
- Written by Chris Ludwig
- Hits: 3215
Year by year summary tables showing the projects awarded funding by the Park Enhancement Fund. The funding comes from the BC Parks Licence Plate Program.
At the request of Backcountry BC, the BC Parks Enhancement Fund supplied us with the list projects funded by the BC Parks License Plate Program. Backcountry BC pointed out in 2020 that virtually all funding went to conservation or indigenous recreation projects. Yet, recreation is one of the pillars of BC Parks' mandate. Recreation projects would have funded backcountry trails, cabins, parking, recreation and access infrastructure. In the summer of 2020, in response we surmise, the minister for environment said that funding for 2020-2021 would have 50% allocated to recreation. We will let you be the judge.
In the modern parlance, whereby you call anything other than it is, "recreation" falls under the BC Parks program category of "visitor experience".
BC Parks License Plate Program Projects 2017 - 2018
BC Parks License Plate Program Projects 2018-2019
The BC Parks License Plate Program - Where does the money go?
- Written by Chris Ludwig
- Hits: 1569
The BC Parks License Plate Program - Where does the money go?
What are all of these 220 projects I ask?
"These funds support diverse projects related to Conservation, Community Engagement and Education, and Indigenous Relations.".
I don't see the word "recreation" anywhere in this description. The word "conservation" is of course ever-present throughout their website, but the word "recreation" seems to be treated like the name "Lord Voldemort" (the word that must not be named or funded).
As much as some of the more conservation obsessed BC Parks staff might like to dump the "recreation" part of their dual mandate of Recreation and Conservation into the trash bin, the dual mandate is still BC Parks Policy and is the agency's founding mission.
Conservation and Recreation values can coexist. This is the challenging and vital balancing act that BC Parks is tasked with.
Our Parks are not the personal conservation plaything of a civil service afflicted with bias and tunnel vision, and the current attitude of "us against the citizens" must end (reference the BC Parks motto: "protecting the parks from the people"). I suspect that this bias is germinated in our Universities and their environmental and planning degree programs in which these employees more-often-than-not originate from.
Selectively directing our money almost exclusively towards conservation and politically correct feel-good projects, while quashing and financially starving such things as new hiking trails and access is not acceptable.
I would also like to see transparent decision making from BC Parks rather than the ongoing surprises and edicts emerging unannounced from the shadowy bowels of the civil service as it occurs today.
The BC Parks License Plate money did not go to recreation
- Written by Chris Ludwig
- Hits: 1717
From Backcountry BC - Time for a little grinch-like Christmas BC Parks post.
Here is BC Parks (spin, spin go the spin doctors) thanking those of us who have purchased BC Parks license plates and how they are using that money in a manner, in their own words no less, that rejects the founding (and current) dual mandate of recreation and conservation.
Notice that recreation, trails and facilities are never mentioned with regards to how they are spending your money; only the singular priority of conservation and a growing obsession with political correctness at the expense of basic park infrastructure.
How nice that BC Parks is weaponizing the license plate money to continue to deny, limit and fight non-motorized backcountry recreation in the parks. Of course, commercial operators receive far more favourable and preferential treatment.
After all, our parklands are the personal plaything and regulatory personal property of administratively top-heavy BC Parks, and not the collective property of the BC citizenry.
The money is supposed to go to the dual mandate of recreation and conservation (not community relations and indigenous relations). Mr. Joe Public purchased these plates believing it would go to trails, infrastructure, upkeep, etc.
But it didn't. Can he now get a refund please due to false advertising?
Merry Christmas BC Parks. I hope you got coal in your stockings from Santa.
PS - I posted this on BC Parks's Facebook Page as well. A Backcountry BC Merry Christmas to all and to all a good hike.