NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release 2008ENV0075-001111 July 19, 2008	Ministry of Environment
B.C. INVESTS $11 MILLION TO IMPROVE PROVINCIAL PARKS

VICTORIA – To help celebrate Parks Day this weekend, Environment Minister Barry Penner announced the B.C. government is investing close to $11 million this year on upgrades to BC Parks infrastructure to improve the camping and day-use experience for park visitors.

 

“We want visitors to keep coming back to British Columbia’s world-class provincial parks,” Penner said. “One of the best ways to ensure return visits is to keep improving the BC Parks system by making significant capital investments in our park facilities each year.”

 

Key infrastructure upgrades for the 2008-09 fiscal year include what will be significant expenditures at the following provincial parks throughout the province (competitive tendering processes will determine the final cost of these projects):

• Ten Mile Lake Provincial Park – site redesign and reconstruction of the Touring Campground.
• Kikomun Creek Provincial Park – campground facilities reconstruction and water system upgrade.
• Golden Ears Provincial Park – water system reconstruction and waste water treatment plant replacement.
• Skaha Bluffs – construction of an entrance road and parking for the proposed provincial park.
• Mount Robson Provincial Park – upgrading and relocation of the Meadows sani-station.
• Swan Lake Provincial Park – campground reconstruction.
• Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park – footbridge replacement.
• Herald Provincial Park – water system upgrade.
• Goldstream Provincial Park – day-use and Visitor Centre water system upgrades, and day-use trail rebuild.

 

To make the province’s parks system better than ever before, the B.C. government has made a capital investment of more than $83 million over the past four years (2004-08) to improve park facilities and acquire new lands.

 

Since 2001, the provincial government has established 57 new parks, 129 conservancies, one ecological reserve and eight protected areas, and expanded more than 50 parks and six ecological reserves, protecting more than 1.8 million hectares. Today, 14.26 per cent (or more than 13.5 million hectares) of British Columbia is protected – more than any other province in Canada.

 

To learn more about BC Parks, please visit www.bcparks.ca.

-30-

Media contact:	Kate Thompson Manager, Media Relations 250 953-4577
For more information on government services or to subscribe to the Province’s news feeds using RSS, visit the Province’s website at www.gov.bc.ca.