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Backcountry safety as Olympic Legacy?

North Vancouver businessman campaigning to divert proposed park user fees into search and rescue, avalanche bulletin and education This Friday, Nov. 29, the government-appointed B.C.

North Vancouver businessman campaigning to divert proposed park user fees into search and rescue, avalanche bulletin and education

This Friday, Nov. 29, the government-appointed B.C. Recreation Stewardship Panel will present its final report to Premier Gordon Campbell and his cabinet regarding the ongoing management and funding of the provincial park system.

The report is expected to include a number of recommendations that were in the draft report released Sept. 15, including the creation of a user-fee system requiring park visitors to pay admission into parks on top of the usual fees for camping.

The problem, according to North Vancouver resident and backcountry enthusiast Richard Kinar, is that none of the money raised from user fees has been earmarked for search and rescue teams, the Canadian Avalanche Association bulletin, or basic backcountry education.

The issue is compounded further by the Vancouver 2010 Olympic bid – if the numbers at Salt Lake City are any indication, B.C. could see mountain tourism double in the years leading up to and following the Winter Games.

"There were so many groups that haven’t been included (by the Recreation Stewardship Panel) – cyclists, hikers, backcountry skiers and boarders, that kind of thing," said Kinar. "I mean where is this money going to?

"I’m calling for minimum standards within the park system. For all the backcountry users, they would have to assume if user fees were introduced, they would have to get something for that fee."

Kinar wants to see a portion of user fees go towards provincial search and rescue teams, as well as the Canadian Avalanche Association’s avalanche bulletin.

While the Vancouver 2010 Olympic bid will likely lead to an increase in the number of backcountry users in the province, Kinar also sees the Games as an excellent opportunity to draw international attention to backcountry awareness and safety issues. He even sees the potential to turn funding for search and rescue and the avalanche bulletin into an Olympic legacy.

"It’s the perfect time to be talking about this. The stewardship panel is planning our future, the Olympics are also our future. I also know that the Europeans take outdoor safety very seriously, it’s part of their psyche. A lot of their ski areas are in avalanche areas… and this is the kind of thing (Olympic delegates) are going to be interested in," said Kinar.

The North Shore Search and Rescue Team, which serves North Vancouver and the North Shore, is the busiest volunteer team Canada, and gets up to two calls a week to find or rescue people in the mountains. Like all search and rescue teams, they fundraise to purchase equipment and all searches are conducted by volunteers.

"They are getting busier. There are more tourists out there and mountain bikers, as well as a good number of skiers, hikers, and boarders," said Kinar. "Search and rescue may or may not be able to keep up with the number of call-outs."

There are now almost 5,000 search and rescue volunteers around the province, and Kinar feels that user fees should help fund their rescue activities.

Last winter, the B.C. government announced that it would no longer contribute almost $40,000 to the Canadian Avalanche Association avalanche centre, which issues regular bulletins on avalanche conditions around the province. Private funding kept the report alive last year, and the CAA has announced that they have most of their funding this year as well.

But rather than see the CAA scrambling for private funding every year, Kinar would like to see a portion of the user fees go towards funding the bulletin.

Kinar is currently working with the City of North Vancouver, Cypress Bowl and the school board on an outdoor safety program, which recently won a Canadian Parks and Recreation Award. The program is being expanded to include backcountry mountain bike awareness to reduce the number of serious injuries taking place on trails.

"In it we try to teach the kids basic risk management, and part of risk management is understanding what the risks are. Without proper forecasting, it’s difficult to minimize your risks when going into the backcountry. You like to know what the avalanche risks are, is there a high risk, what the snow pack has been doing, and what the trend is for the season," said Kinar. "Education is a big part of safety, and why the weather forecasting system and money for the avalanche centre is really important here in B.C."

According to Ski Utah, the 2002 Winter Olympics increased bookings for the upcoming season by as much as 200 per cent.

More visitors will result in more backcountry users, says Kinar, which will probably result in more rescues.

While it’s too late to influence the Recreation Stewardship Panel, Kinar and others who have become involved are asking backcountry users to contact their representatives in the Legislature and local governments, urging them to put a portion of the user fees into backcountry safety.

According to the Recreation Stewardship Panel, the parks are already running in the red. They blame previous governments for establishing parks that comprise almost 12 per cent of the land base without any plan in place to cover the costs of maintaining them.

Not only does the park system not recover its costs, "the current expenditures are less than estimated to achieve the provincial government’s vision for fish, wildlife and park recreation," according to the report.

They believe that the cost of maintaining the park system should fall on the shoulders of the actual park users, not taxpayers. Similar user fee systems are already in effect in Ontario and Nova Scotia.

The fees have yet to be set, but they are expected to be between $4 to $7 per vehicle, per day.

In 2001, almost 24 million people visited B.C. parks.