Western Canada Wilderness Committee volunteer Tina Hennecken hands out pamphlets at Goldstream Provincial Park during a day-long protest against privatization and industrial development in B.C.'s parks.
Visitors are being driven away from B.C.'s parks because they have to shell out money for parking, pay for privatized interpretive programs and deal with contracted-out park services, says a coalition of environmental groups.

"Our parks are under siege," said Gwen Barlee of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, who was among protesters who met visitors in 13 provincial parks Thursday.
Environmental groups handed out pamphlets and collected signatures on a petition asking the government to stop park privatization.

Support was overwhelming, said Ken Wu, WCWC campaign director.

"Virtually everyone is against paid parking. Residents are not paying it and the international visitors are paying it grudgingly," he said.

Protesters were joined by the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union protesting staff cuts in environmental ministries.

"They eliminated 186 conservation, science and planning officers -- the very people responsible for protecting at-risk species," said BCGEU president George Heyman.

But, Environment Minister Barry Penner shot back, accusing the groups of using outdated, inaccurate information.

More than 75 per cent of parks visitors are paying for parking and most appreciate that the money is needed to pay for park infrastructure such as bathrooms, roads and water lines, he said.

"If WCWC had their way we would have less money to fix up the parks."

The province is spending $16.5 million over the next three years to hire 50 new conservation officers and park rangers, and to form the new B.C. Conservation Corps, Penner said.

"We have established 37 class A provincial parks and extended 34 other provincial parks and we're continuing to look for opportunities to add to the land base and that costs money," he said.

However, Wu said the new parks were designated protected areas by the NDP government and the Liberals have only changed the name. New staff do not make up for the cuts, he said.

"They've emptied the lake and now they've put a few buckets back."