New national park comes with twist

In the old-growth forests and boggy expanses of the Mealy Mountains, the federal government is conducting an experiment in parks creation. The future park – to be developed on 11,700 square kilometres of this Arctic alpine terrain in eastern Labrador – includes the traditional hallmarks of protected status, with a key exception: Locals can continue to hunt there indefinitely.

It's a controversial line – a slippery slope to losing the very definition of parks, some conservationists worry – that Parks Canada has not crossed before. But Kevin McNamee, the agency’s director for new parks, said locals would not have supported a park this size unless they retained their existing rights.

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While locals in the Mealy Mountains applaud Parks Canada’s willingness to bend on hunting, the new approach has sparked debate within the broader conservation community. Gretchen Fitzgerald, director of the Atlantic chapter of Sierra Club Canada, is concerned that this could be “the thin edge of the wedge” leading to a watered-down definition of parks that offers less protection to animals.

“I am worried if this is where we’re going to go,” she said. “I think this goes to the heart of what a park is.”