House unanimously passes Nahanni Park expansion bill
The House of Commons has unanimously passed a bill to expand the Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Wednesday afternoon.
The bill, which Prentice tabled last week, received all-party consent shortly after 5 p.m. ET.
"So with all-party consent, it's through the House and now on its way to the Senate and hopefully will clear the Senate in the next few days," Prentice told CBC News: Politics in an interview.
Prentice's bill, tabled June 9, called for the park reserve's boundaries to be expanded to encompass 30,000 square kilometres of land from the current 4,765 square kilometres.
Officials say the enlarged park will be slightly smaller than Vancouver Island, making Nahanni the third-largest national park in Canada.
'Single act of conservation in Canada'
"This was a bill essentially to expand the Nahanni park six-fold to over 30,000 [square] kilometres — something we've been working on as a country for a long time," Prentice said.
"As the prime minister described it, it's the greatest single act of conservation in Canada, really, in a generation, so we're delighted."
Officially designated a park reserve in 1976, the Nahanni National Park Reserve is a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its pristine watershed, unique rock formations and as a habitat for grizzly bears, woodland caribou and Dall’s sheep.
Speaking about the bill in the House, Western Arctic NDP MP Dennis Bevington said "extensive public consultations" took place surrounding the proposal to expand the park reserve.
"The consultations indicated, both in the region and in Canada, overwhelming support for the expansion of Nahanni National Park," Bevington said.
Bevington issued a special thanks to Dene elders within the Dehcho First Nations, who have long pushed leaders for the region to be protected.
Two mines that operate outside the park's current boundaries will be allowed to continue running. However, two hunting outfitters that have guided sport hunters in the park will be evicted in 10 years.
Ousted outfitter bitter
Nahanni Butte Outfitters will lose all its hunting territory in the park expansion, while South Nahanni Outfitters will lose 45 per cent of its territory.
"There was no negotiation done or discussion or consulting at all —nothing. And then the mines, they're all going to stay," South Nahanni owner Werner Aschbacher told CBC News.
"If you want to talk about pollution … the main polluters are still there, and the outfitters who are dealing with a renewable resource — I mean, they'll be gone."
The park area is known around the world for its trophy Dall's sheep. Hunters from Europe and the United States bring an estimated $2 million into the region each year.
Parks Canada CEO Allan Latourelle conceded that the two mines will be allowed to stay, as they operate outside the reserve boundary. However, he said, hunting by outfitters and non-aboriginal hunters within the park area will be forbidden.