Debates of January 21, 2004 (day 2)
Member’s Statement On Parks Use Policy
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to take this opportunity to raise an issue that my constituent has asked me to bring to the attention of the Minister of RWED. This is a recurring issue that I have raised with the previous Minister of RWED and something that the current Minister of RWED -- who is also an MLA for Yellowknife -- is very familiar with. It has to do with the department’s policy or directive that the department has with the contractor that manages the territorial parks around the city which limits the time of overnight stays for any given family to a maximum of two weeks per year.
Mr. Speaker, I understand that the rationale for this policy is to encourage and support the visitors from out of town that we receive every summer and I think the residents of Yellowknife are willing to do their part to accommodate our welcome visitors. What is frustrating for our residents is when -- and the Minister is well aware of this because we get these complaints every year and this year it’s only January and I’ve already received a phone call, so I can just see the traffic coming -- these families who have maxed out their two weeks see the vacant camping spots sitting there, but they’re not able to access them because they’ve maxed out, but there are no visitors.
What I would like to ask the Minister is to use a sense of reasonableness and fairness and to fine-tune this policy and to improve it so that perhaps we could have a tier system where visitors are given first priority and the residents who have not maxed out two weeks could have the next available spot and for the rest of the spots people could have a waiting list. Especially for the families with small children during the height of summer, these spaces are very important. Repeated requests to the Minister of RWED previously have not resulted in any action. Knowing that the Minister is very well aware of this issue and knowing that he’s a very reasonable and fair-minded person, I would like to call upon his wisdom to please take immediate action to revise and improve this policy because it may not be the thing that changes this world tomorrow, but it is very important for residents of Yellowknife who, for whatever reason, would like to stay closer to the city and especially make use of the park at Long Lake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause