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Bill 4: Feasibility Study

Satisfactory Essays

Bill 4 was introduced into the British Columbia legislature in February 2014 and was passed as the Park Amendment Act one month later. This Act contains several amendments to British Columbia’s Park Act that jeopardize the protection of its provincial parks and could potentially facilitate the construction of pipelines, power corridors, and other industrial activities through these parks.

Previously, the Minister of Environment would only issue provincial park use permits if the activity was considered necessary for the preservation or maintenance of the recreational values of the park. However, the newly amended Park Act has removed this requirement for research activities. The Minister can now issue park use permits with no limitations for conducting research. Research activities include feasibility studies for various purposes including industrial projects such as pipelines or transmission lines. This Act also reduces legal protection for smaller parks. Previously, small parks were protected from resource use due to their increased sensitivity to ecological disturbances. This safeguard has now been removed and resource use permits can be issued for all parks. …show more content…

It has been suggested that the main goal of this Act is to further enable government policy that allows industry to propose amendments to park boundaries. Once research within park boundaries is completed, as allowed by the Park Amendment Act, and a project is deemed feasible, the government would then invoke British Columbia’s Boundary Adjustment Policy to adjust park boundaries, removing the land involved to accommodate the project. This may result in parks containing large tracts of unprotected areas, causing fragmentation of wildlife habitat and threatening the ecosystems within parks that should be

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