BANFF, Alberta, April 18, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sunshine Village Ski Resort has unveiled seven very reasonable parking expansion options and is asking for Canadians to urge Ottawa politicians to engage with Parks Canada so that visitors are not denied access to the national park.
Within the first few days of launching, hundreds of Canadians have used a special website – Sunshineparkingsolution.com – to email Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna expressing discontent at the Parks Canada plan to deny parking (starting November, 2017) on the access road where up to 800 vehicles have parked without incident for more than 40 years on busy days.
The progressive satellite parking solutions are detailed on the website, which also includes an easy-to-use process to send emails to Ottawa asking senior politicians to intervene and demand Parks Canada to work collaboratively with Sunshine to create long-term parking solutions.
“We have worked for years with respected environmental consultants to propose reasonable parking expansion proposals, all 7 of which have been turned down by Parks Canada without valid reason,” said Dave Riley, the resort’s Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President. “We are shocked that Parks Canada would attempt to take access road parking away from our visitors without first implementing a reasonable alternative.”
The resort’s leasehold occupies less than two one/thousandth of Banff National Park or 3,358 acres of the park’s more than 1.6 million acres. The Lake Louise and Marmot Basin ski resorts in the mountain national parks continue to be allowed to park guests on their access roads. This Parks Canada plan discriminates against Sunshine Village.
Mr. Riley noted Sunshine Village implements advanced training and safety precautions on the access road and fully protects Parks Canada by indemnifying them in the lease and naming them on its insurance policy. In over 40 years of parking on the access road, there has never been an injury accident.
“The real story here is that Canadians are having their access taken away and that is not acceptable with the public,” added Mr. Riley. “It is contradictory and a terrible decision that Parks Canada would be waiving the Parks gate fee for 2017 while simultaneously threatening to eliminate existing parking on the Sunshine Access Road.”
Sunshine urges everyone to go to www.sunshineparkingsolution.com to learn the facts and voice support for a solution.
Sunshine Village Ski Resort
Sunshine Village, close to the town of Banff, provides skiers and boarders with 12-lifts including eight modern high-speed quad chairs, the most in the Canadian Rockies, and is home to Canada’s first heated chairlift, Teepee Town LX. Stay slope-side at Banff’s only ski-in ski-out hotel and experience 3,300 acres of terrain over three mountains in the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia along the Continental Divide. Sunshine Village has Canada’s longest non-glacial ski season, open from November to late May. For more information visit www.skibanff.com.