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[troutbreath]

Economic slump means shorter camping season at 45 B.C. parks
 
 
By Gerry Bellett, Vancouver SunApril 22, 2009
 

 
 BC Parks is cutting back on the camping season in 45 provincial parks as part of provincial efforts to trim expenditures during the economic downturn.

Budget estimates for the ministry of environment’s operating expenses for 2009-2010 are $239 million, down $24.3 million from last year.

Part of the saving will come from reducing the number of weeks some provincial parks and campgrounds are open.

BC Parks operates more than 600 parks in eight regions and the reductions will affect about 7.5 per cent of these parks.

A full list of the parks with reduced openings can be found on the BC Parks website, www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks.

Only two parks in the South Coast area will be affected — Porpoise Bay and Roberts Creek, both on the Sunshine Coast.

Normally, Porpoise Bay Provincial Park is open from April 15 to Oct. 15 but this year the park will close a month early on Sept. 15. Roberts Creek will be open from June 15 to Sept. 15 instead of May 15 to Sept. 15.

The BC Parks website apologizes for the reducing the operating season saying it was necessary “in order to meet budget targets.”

The Cariboo Region has seven parks with reduced openings, the Kootenay region nine, Skeena six, Vancouver Island 12, Okanagan three, Omineca five, and Thompson one.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

[chris gadsden]

B.C. provincial park rangers get layoff notices
Last Updated: Monday, April 27, 2009 | 2:30 PM PT Comments63Recommend50CBC News
B.C.'s Ministry of the Environment is laying off up to half of its park rangers this summer, CBC News has learned, and that means many provincial parks will have to share rangers.

Valhalla Provincial Park Ranger Bob Fuhrer told CBC News he fully expected to be back on the job this summer, but last week, he got a layoff notice.

Fuhrer has worked at the Kootenay park for 15 years, but recently learned that three out of the five summer rangers who work in parks in the West Kootenay region have been laid off, along with a similar number in East Kootenay parks.

A ministry official has since confirmed similar layoffs are happening at provincial parks across B.C.

Fuhrer said he's grown to love patrolling the mountains and lakeshore of Valhalla Provincial Park, but for the first time since it was created, it will not have a dedicated ranger this summer.

"You know, I was pretty devastated," said Fuhrer. "The people who work in parks aren't doing it because of the big money. You know, it becomes a love affair with your park."

Valhalla Wilderness Society chairperson Anne Sherrod called the cuts shameful.

"Here we have a government that is throwing around billions for the Olympics and slashing our park system so it almost doesn't exist," she said.

Sherrod said she was surprised that the Liberals would instigate the layoffs during an election campaign, and her group plans to take the issue up with Premier Gordon Campbell when he arrives to campaign in the Kootenays on Monday afternoon.

B.C. voters head to the polls on May 12.

[troutbreath]

Call me a cynic but if the Liberals get in they will use data of a lack of money coming in at parks, as a way to privatize or build resorts for the wealthy. They won't mention they actually reduced the amount of days the parks were open. I was brought up on camping in Provincial and National Parks every summer. We couldn't afford a trip Disneyland.

[salmon river]

Shame on El Gordo... he probably wants to turn provincial parks into retreats for the wealthy...

But people do not care in this province what El Gordo does as he is going to get an even larger majority.  By the time people start actually caring for not just this province but country it will all be sold out from under them.....baaa baaa

[Novabonker]

Maybe not....


    *

PATRICK BRETHOUR

Globe and Mail update

April 28, 2009 at 8:30 PM EDT

VANCOUVER — The BC Liberals and the NDP are in a statistical dead heat at the halfway point of the election campaign, despite negative personal numbers for both Gordon Campbell and Carole James, a poll just released by Angus Reid Strategies indicates.

The poll, conducted for CTV and The Globe and Mail, gives the Liberals 42-per-cent support among decided voters, while the NDP get 39 per cent and the Green Party 13 per cent. The BC Conservative Party barely registers, with 3-per-cent support. For respondents “absolutely certain” to vote on May 12, the race is even tighter: the Liberals are at 43 per cent, the NDP at 41 per cent, the Greens at 12 per cent, and the BC Conservatives at 2 per cent. For both sets of results, the gap between the two main parties is within the margin of error, meaning that the poll is a statistical tie.

Other polls have given the Liberals as much as a 17 percentage point lead, but the previous Angus Reid Strategies poll released in late March had the party ahead of the NDP by just six points. However, tonight's poll indicates that the NDP has substantially closed that gap.

Regionally, the NDP is gaining the most ground in the north of the province (which Angus Reid Strategies deems to be Prince George and points north), where the party registers 45 per cent support, ahead of the Liberals at 41 per cent. In the Interior, the Liberals have the lead over the NDP, 41 to 37. The Liberals also lead in Vancouver and its suburbs, excluding Surrey, 43 to 37, as well as Surrey and the Fraser Valley, where they have 48 per cent to the New Democrats 37 per cent. The NDP leads on Vancouver Island, with 44 per cent to the Liberals' 34 per cent; support for the Greens is strongest in that part of the province, with the party hitting 16 per cent support.
British Columbia NDP Leader Carole James speaks to supporters during a campaign stop in Surrey, B.C., on Tuesday.

British Columbia NDP Leader Carole James speaks to supporters during a campaign stop in Surrey, B.C., on Tuesday. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
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The Globe and Mail

NDP support is rising, but public opinion on the party's leader is not. Ms. James' approval rating has dipped to 27 per cent, with 49 per cent disapproving of her performance. At the same time, she has seen a surge in the proportion of respondents who say their opinion of her has worsened in the past two months. In the latest poll, 35 per cent say their opinion has worsened, close to double the proportion who felt that way in late March. Ten per cent say their opinion of Ms. James has improved (a decline of four percentage points), while 48 per cent say their opinion is unchanged.

There is a similar picture for Mr. Campbell's momentum, although not as marked a deterioration as Ms. James has seen. Eight per cent of respondents say their opinion of the Liberal leader has improved over the last two months, with 54 per cent of respondents saying their opinion has stayed the same, and 33 per cent saying their opinion has worsened.

The online survey was conducted from April 24 to April 26 from a random sample of 822 adult residents of British Columbia, with results statistically weighted. The poll is deemed to be accurate to within 3.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.