A Plan for Parks and Public Land but is there a Plan for Protection?

In early 2026, the Government of Alberta released two policy documents intended to guide public land policy direction in the province – The Plan for Parks and the Crown Land Recreation and Conservation Strategy. The Plan for Parks (the “Plan”) is a comprehensive strategy that represents policy direction under the Provincial Parks Act.[1] The Crown Land Recreation and Conservation Strategy (the “Strategy”) applies to all public lands including those in protected areas thus encompassing nearly all land in the province with the exception of private or municipal and federal land.[2]

Both policy documents fall under the province’s ‘Crown Land Vision’ which is ostensibly based on principles set out in the Water for Life Strategy and Land-use Framework.[3] The two documents are meant to work together and guide “conservation and management of all Crown lands” and as such will need to be considered together as implementation and policy updates are made going forward.[4]

This blog post provides an analysis of the policy recommendations contained in the Plan and Strategy. Although both these documents represent an important acknowledgment that Alberta’s public lands are valuable resources that deserve thoughtful stewardship, conservation must be elevated to a primary consideration embedded in the purpose, structure, and implementation of these policies to deliver meaningful outcomes.

A Note on Language: The Plan and Strategy use the terms ‘Crown land’ and ‘Public land’ interchangeably to refer to land that falls under provincial jurisdiction. In this post, we will use the term ‘public’ unless quoting directly from the provincial documents.

The Plan for Parks

The Plan is a high-level policy document setting out the direction for parks management and priorities in the province.  A draft version of the Plan was released last year and the ELC provided comments on that draft which can be read here.

Unfortunately, the Plan retains many of the same challenges that we identified in the draft version including:

• a lack of priority focus on conservation in the Plan’s stated purposes for parks;
• an unfinished regional plan network to help enable landscape-level goals;
• a missing regulatory structure for access fees to ensure that they are utilized only for conservation;
• no option for formalized Indigenous co-management; and
• limited acknowledgment of the effects of climate change on parks across Alberta.

There are updates to the Provincial Parks Act promised, so we still need to wait and see how the policy goals set out in the Plan will be incorporated into the parks regulatory framework.

The Crown Land Recreation and Conservation Strategy

The Strategy provides broad policy direction for all public land in the province and focuses primarily on “responsible recreational development, enhanced conservation of our natural spaces, as well as opportunities for deliberate investment and strategic growth.”[5] The primary rationale for the Strategy is to focus on the growing use of public land and the need for diverse recreational options and “the maintenance and resilience of outdoor spaces, including ecosystems, wildlife, and water quality.”[6] A laudable goal indeed.

It is worth noting that the Strategy references existing tools including the Trails Act and the All-Seasons Resort Act.[7] However, past ELC analysis of the Trails Act found that there is limited reference to conservation objectives in that Act and that it fails to incorporate binding scientific criteria and environmental assessment which should be the backbone of trail recreation and decision-making.[8] The Trails Act also lacks a cumulative impact framework. The ELC has also commented on the All-Seasons Resort Act which is referred to as part of the overarching public land use management regime set out in the Strategy (see our comments here and here.). In particular, the ELC raised concerns about how the All-Seasons Resort Act would decrease the transparency and accountability around decisions made on Alberta’s public lands and short-cuts around Alberta’s environmental legislation such as the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act and Water Act.

The Strategy is composed of three objectives, each with action items and goals.

Objective 1: Enable diverse outdoor recreational opportunities

This first objective sets out five goals: infrastructure and accessibility; tourism and economic development; recreation and conservation planning; hunting and fishing; and recreational management tools.[9] Similar to the Plan, these objectives and goals focus primarily on recreation and human use of public lands, although there are specific activities that may have beneficial impacts for conservation.

The first goal – infrastructure and accessibility focuses primarily on developing recreation on public lands. Notably, this highlights the opportunity to reduce human impact through a focus on the use of previously disturbed areas and the creation and maintenance of an inventory of public lands.[10] The use of previously disturbed areas for recreation could be an important chance to convert former industrial areas, an example given in the Strategy, to productive land uses and leave pristine areas for conservation. It also suggests some degree of reclamation to convert these sites into suitable recreation areas, which could be beneficial for the surrounding habitat. In this instance, it will be important to watch out for reclamation standards that will be used to ensure human and environmental health.

The next goal – tourism and economic development – is again focused on recreational opportunities and includes references to public land subject to the All-Seasons Resort Act. The Strategy suggests that land identified in the Tourism Development Zones and the All-Seasons Resort Act may be developed into recreation facilities. We have already seen land that was previously included in a provincial park delisted in order to be incorporated into an all-seasons resort application.[11] The ELC notes that while recreation and tourism can be sustainably managed, there should not be a diminishment or loss of protection in existing protected areas, whether by application of the All-Seasons Resort Act, delisting or otherwise.

The third goal, recreation and conservation planning, states that connectivity of recreation areas will be assessed across land ownership boundaries to actively manage for wildlife and conservation. This signals an opportunity for streamlined protections across land use types and the potential for better range plans for wildlife across the province.[12] This type of landscape-level planning rather than decisions on an individual basis can help with ecosystem management. However, we note that this type of planning would benefit greatly from completion of regional plans under the Alberta Land Stewardship Act (ALSA) (only 2 of 7 are completed to date).[13]

In regard to the fourth goal – hunting and fishing opportunities – the Strategy references updates to the Wildlife Act and the Fisheries (Alberta) Act.[14] The ELC has written about some recent updates to the Wildlife Act which have increased hunting opportunities. However, it is not clear if the Strategy is referring to these changes or if new ones are coming. While hunting regulations are not inherently at odds with conservation, the consistent increase in hunting opportunities without equal opportunity for conservation and species at risk protection may have detrimental impacts on wildlife.

Finally, in discussing the recreational management tools goal, the Strategy refers to “inform[ing] Indigenous communities and organizations of the opportunities for traditional and cultural use on Crown lands, such as exercise of Treaty rights.”[15] This does not seem to create any new opportunities for Indigenous participation or cooperation as treaty rights exist regardless of this Strategy, and we would prefer direct regulatory change to allow for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas. It remains to be seen if this Strategy will guide changes that provide opportunities to enhance Indigenous co-management of public land.

Objective 2: Sustain environment and ecological function

This part of the Strategy suggests the most significant opportunities for a conservation focus.  Itis divided into four goals: education and awareness; conservation and environmental protection; planning and management; and monitoring.[16] There are several specific action items which provide promising conservation opportunities.

To begin, the goal of conservation and environmental protection includes an important focus on conservation objectives, data, and connectivity. This includes a plan to identify objectives associated with conservation areas and create maps for large-scale landscape values and signals an opportunity to make broader landscape-level decisions and support conservation at a provincial level. We note that integration of this approach into ALSA regional plans could help to ensure that cumulative impacts are considered and enable equal levels of protection across the province.

The next goal is ‘planning and management’ and includes updating management plans including for the management of cumulative effects and climate conditions and to do so based on scientific research.[17] This is a critical focus and signifies the importance of integrated land management and cumulative impacts on overall ecosystem and habitat function. Finally, there is a call for increased monitoring on the effectiveness of these plans and more generally of the overall conservation, recreation, and tourism objectives. Ongoing monitoring is a regular recommendation from the ELC, and these proposals should be encouraged.

Objective 3: Empower and enable partnerships

The final objective of the Strategy focuses on partnerships and collaboration in the public lands sector. This is identified as including municipal, non-profit, industry, commercial, and Indigenous groups. While partnerships and collaboration can be done in a meaningful and helpful way, it will be important to ensure that government discretion is not fettered in favour of commercial interests.

The Strategy does not specifically reference Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas as an opportunity for partnership, but we note that these are opportunities that enhance conservation while also building partnerships with Indigenous communities.

Final Thoughts

The release of both the Plan and the Strategy represent important acknowledgments that Alberta’s public lands are valuable resources that deserve thoughtful stewardship on behalf of all Albertans. However, acknowledgment is not enough. For these documents to deliver meaningful outcomes, conservation must be elevated from a secondary consideration to a primary one and embedded in the purpose, structure, and implementation of these policies.

Several key reforms would strengthen this framework. First, conservation objectives should be explicitly prioritized rather than treated as one consideration among many. Second, the completion of regional plans under ALSA is essential as landscape-level goals cannot be achieved without the planning infrastructure to support them. Finally, any implementation of these policies must be grounded in binding scientific criteria and assessment, particularly regarding cumulative impacts and ecosystem management. The implementation of these policies and any updates to the accompanying regulatory framework provide an opportunity to accomplish the broad goals and this opportunity should not be missed.

Upcoming Nature Strategy: The Government of Alberta is currently developing a “made-in-Alberta strategy that guides how we maintain, conserve and sustainably manage the province’s nature for years to come.” Although input on the Nature Strategy is complete, it has not yet been released. Watch out for future comments on the Nature Strategy and how it relates to the land use documents discussed in today’s post.

---

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT

Your support is vital for stronger environmental legislation. As Alberta’s leading environmental charity, the Environmental Law Centre has served our community for over 40 years, providing objective guidance on crucial legislative changes. Your contribution helps protect our environment for future generations. 

Please support our work: Share, engage and donate to the ELC

---

[1] Provincial Parks Act, RSA 2000, c P-35.

[2] The Strategy encompasses land falling under several pieces of legislation: Provincial Parks Act, RSA 2000, c P-35; Public Lands Act, RSA 2000, c P-40; Wilderness Areas, Ecological Reserves, Natural Areas and Heritage Rangelands Act, RSA 2000, c W-9; Willmore Wilderness Park Act, RSA 2000, c W-11.

[3] Government of Alberta, “Crown Land Recreation and Conservation Strategy” (Jan 2026) at 5 online: https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/bc6a76c3-469f-42b6-a911-e862ceb6d84e/resource/794a3b45-906a-4fd9-a103-b249fbfb5d17/download/fp-crown-land-recreation-conservation-strategy-2026.pdf (Strategy).

[4] Strategy at 5.

[5] Strategy at 3.

[6] Strategy at 4.

[7] Strategy at 4.

[8] Environmental Law Centre, “On the wrong path: the proposed Trails Act needs changes to ensure trail management reflects science” (3 Nov 2021) ELC online: https://elc.ab.ca/post-library/on-the-wrong-path-the-proposed-trails-act-needs-changes-to-ensure-trail-management-reflects-science/.

[9] Strategy at 7-8.

[10] Strategy at 7.

[11] Greg Colgan, “Provincial park boundary changes for Alberta year-round resorts raise concerns” (24 Feb 2026) CBC News online: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/all-seasons-resorts-act-provincial-park-mapping-changes-9.7103210#:~:text=Fortress%20Mountain%20received%20131%20hectares,the%20entire%20provincial%20parks%20system.%E2%80%9D.

[12] Strategy at 7.

[13] Alberta Land Stewardship Act, SA 2009, c A-26.8.

[14] Strategy at 8.

[15] Strategy at 8.

[16] Strategy at 9.

[17] Strategy at 9.