WINNIPEG – The Manitoba Government is proposing a new land-use category change for parts of Hecla / Grindstone Provincial Park, which will see 4,015 hectares (ha) of land reclassified as Backcountry – protecting them from activities like logging and mining. Unfortunately, the government is leaving an additional 1,370 ha of the park at risk of future industrial development.

“We are thrilled to see the government recognizing industrial activity in a provincial park as a problem and taking steps to eradicate it,” said Eric Reder, Campaign Director at the Wilderness Committee. “This proposal is good but doesn't go far enough. Who really wants to see industrial development in Hecla Park?”

The Wilderness Committee has been campaigning to have Manitoba's parks protected from industrial development, and to increase the protected lands in Manitoba to 20 per cent of the province by 2020.

Earlier this year, the Manitoba government also promised to make land-use category changes around Meditation Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park – but that proposal has yet to make it to the public comment phase.

Areas inside provincial parks in Manitoba are classified as any one of six land-use categories – Resource Management is the category which explicitly encourages industrial activity. The Wilderness Committee is asking that this land-use category be completely eliminated from provincial park classification.

"This proposal highlights the continuing dysfunction in Manitoba Conservation. While the government sends out five press releases a day on any number of subjects, the park protection proposal wasn't properly announced and can't even be found on the Protected Areas Initiative website," said Reder. "In addition, it is completely unacceptable for unannounced public comment periods to be only two weeks long, as is the case with this proposal."