Gatineau Park

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For other uses, see Gatineau (disambiguation).

Administered by the National Capital Commission, Gatineau Park is a federal park located in western Quebec on the outskirts of the city of Gatineau. The park forms a 363 km² triangle with the Ottawa and Gatineau River running parallel to two sides of the park. Atlthough it was advocated by Dominion Parks Commissioner James Harkin as the first national park to be created outside the rocky mountains, it remains the only federal park that is not a national park.

[edit] History

The park area was originally settled by early immigrants to the area, who were soon discouraged by its thin soils. The government of Canada began acquiring land in the area for a park in the 1930s.

Created in 1938, Gatineau is the only federal park not protected by the National Parks Act, a situation largely attributable to former Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's caution, fear of criticism and desire for privacy.

Gatineau Park was not only the first national park advocated for Quebec, it was also the first national park advocated for creation outside the Rocky Mountains of the West, and the first national park advocated for creation by the first parks service in the world, the Dominion Parks Branch.

On December 3, 1912, Dominion Parks Commissioner James Harkin wrote to Deputy Minister of the Interior William Cory, arguing for the creation of a nation-wide system of parks, the first of which was to be Gatineau Park. In his memo, Harkin said:

"The East has no national parks like those in the Rockies, and it is proposed that the country develop a broader scheme of parks than exists in any other country[…] Bringing into effect the proposed Gatineau Park […] would, I think, most easily commence this scheme."

A few months later, on Cory’s suggestion, Harkin wrote Quebec Minister of Mines and Forests Charles Devlin inquiring whether he would help establish a national park in the Gatineau district. Although provincial officials wrote back that the matter would receive their minister’s immediate attention, Devlin died before he could follow up on Harkin’s request, and no further response was ever received.

And with the 1913 economic depression and First World War intervening shortly thereafter, the government of Canada had to tend to more pressing matters.

On April 7, 1927, the national park idea was again raised in the House Commons, where MPs considered a bill to create the Federal District Commission, which would build parks and parkways on both sides of the Ottawa River. During debate, however, Conservative MP John Edwards accused Prime Minister King of wanting to create a park around his Kingsmere property and ease access to it by building a parkway. Though he denied the charge, the criticism would shape King’s subsequent decisions regarding the park.

Eight years later, at the behest of Percy Sparks of the Federal Woodlands Preservation League, Minister of the Interior T.G. Murphy commissioned a survey to examine the effects of fires and excessive logging in the Gatineau Hills. Among other recommendations, the survey proposed creating a national park. Two years later, however, King chose instead to solve the problem by gradual property acquisition, creating Gatineau Park in embryonic form on July 1, 1938.

In his diary entry of December 20, 1937, King explained the reasons behind his decision, writing that he would allow the park to be created, despite his aversion to tourists invading the Meech and Kingsmere Lake areas, and his fear that he would be criticized for wanting to create a park around his country estate.

Part of King’s anxiety may also have been caused by the circumstances surrounding the creation of another national park. In 1926, King had been nominated as the Liberal candidate in the Saskatchewan riding of Prince Albert, with one of the conditions being that he create a national park there. Following his election in February 1926, King showered the riding with largesse, and at one point worried that the rewards given the riding might “attract the attention of other constituencies to the fact that so many appropriations have been made for a constituency all at once.”

And establishing another national park around his Kingsmere estate would likely prompt additional criticism, which King “was always unduly anxious to avoid [along with] any possible misconstruction of his motives,” according to his biographher MacGregor Dawson. In any event, the prime minister’s decision to acquire property gradually would make completing Gatineau Park a prolonged and difficult process.

King’s self interest and fear of criticism greatly contributed to denying Gatineau Park status as a national park in the 1930s; however, the reasons officials give today for this continued state of affairs do not stand up to careful analysis.

Several senior officials and journalists have recently claimed or suggested that the Quebec government is responsible for preventing Gatineau Park from becoming a national park, because it has historically refused to transfer its 17% “ownership” of the land to the federal government.

For instance, appearing before a Commons committee on April 14, 2005, Parks Canada CEO Alan Latourelle said that the preconditions to creating national parks include a federal-provincial agreement to do so, along with the province’s transferring to the federal government the surface and subsurface rights to the lands concerned. Referring specifically to Gatineau Park, he said that:

"Part of the land is not federal. It is provincially owned – about 11% of it [sic] – and the subsurface rights are owned by the Province of Quebec. In this specific case, if it were to be considered for a national park, we would require the Government of Quebec’s support, and clearly historically we have not received that level of support anywhere in Quebec to create national parks. So it’s not an option we’re currently looking at."

However, that claim is both wrong and misleading, since it seems the federal-provincial transfer needed for the creation of a national park – or something very close to it – has already taken place.

By virtue of a 1973 agreement, the Quebec government transferred the control and management of 12,500 acres of provincial lands located inside Gatineau Park to the federal government – “in perpetuity” according to the two accompanying Orders in Council. The province also transferred the control and management of the lake bottoms located in the park, committed itself not to issue mining exploration permits, stipulated that the lands it was transferring were to form part of Gatineau Park, and guaranteed that the rights it was transferring were free of all defects in title.

In such agreements, and those preceding creation of national parks, it is not ownership that is being transferred, but rather the control and management of the land and resources. As the Supreme Court has said, citing the principle of indivisibility of the Crown, and quoting legal scholar Paul Lordon, “Her Majesty is the owner of the property whether in right of Canada or the province and cannot grant to Herself. Only administrative control of the property passes. The transfer is, therefore, made by reciprocal Orders in Council and is confirmed by statute where third party rights are involved.”

Therefore, by virtue of the 1973 agreement it seems that the province has essentially done what a province should do when it participates in the creation of a national park.

So, to understand what is really preventing Gatineau Park from becoming a national park, it is useful to examine section 5 (1)(a) of the National Parks Act, which stipulates that the federal government must hold “clear title to or an unencumbered right of ownership” over all lands inside a prospective national park. And the only thing denying the federal government that clear title, are the private properties that remain within Gatineau Park.

Lack of protection afforded to other national parks has seriously harmed Gatineau Park. Among the problems plaguing the park are fragmentation of its southern section from road building, removal of some lands without the review, knowledge or approval of Parliament, and the National Capital Commission's inability to consolidate its authority over the territory.

Morevoever, in the absence of legal protection afforded to Canada's other national parks, Gatineau Park’s boundaries have changed a great deal in recent years. As a result of a boundary rationalization exercise conducted in the 1990s, the National Capital Commission removed 48 properties totalling 1,508.4 acres from the park. With the 334.45 additional acres given up to road building within the same time frame – roads built in disregard of master plan commitments – the total number of acres removed from the park stands at 1,842 acres, or nearly three square miles.

In 2005, reacting to public pressure to better protect Gatineau Park, the Honourable Ed Broadbent, MP, tabled a private member's bill in the House of Commons which would have provided legal boundaries and a land management mechanism for the park, similar to the protection provided by the National Parks Act. And, in similar moves, the Honourable Mira Spivak tabled a bill in the Senate on April 25, 2006 which would also grant legislative status and protection to the park, while Ottawa-Centre MP Paul Dewar tabled similar legislation in the House of Commons in May 2006.

The federal government has indicated that it supports the thrust of both bills

[edit] Sites

Gatineau Park includes a number of campgrounds and picnic areas. There are 165 km of hiking trails and 90 km of trails for mountain bikes and the Trans Canada Trail passes through the park. The park is also popular with cyclists; note that most routes are quite steep and very demanding on legs, heart and lungs! There are beaches at Meech Lake, Lac Philippe and La Pêche Lake, which each offer camping facilities. These lakes also offer canoeing; boats with gas motors are not allowed on most lakes in the park. Although the practise is not permitted in the park, some of the more secluded corners are popular with nudists.

There is a tea room at Moorside, the former summer home of William Lyon Mackenzie King, the tenth Prime Minister of Canada, at Kingsmere. The estate also features gardens and the "ruins" collected by King in a woodland setting. A small waterfall runs down the escarpment near Moorside.

The Champlain lookout provides a spectacular view of the Ottawa Valley from high atop the Eardley Escarpment. When the leaves change colour in fall, tourists and locals are drawn to the park's lookouts, roads and pathways to enjoy the autumn scenery.

All of the Ottawa-Gatineau metropolitan area's television and radio stations broadcast from a transmitter site at Camp Fortune just north of Kingsmere.

The park's location in the Gatineau Hills makes it a popular destination for cross-country skiing. There are almost 200 km of cross-country trails and the park plays host to the annual Keskinada Loppet competition. There is also a downhill skiing and snowboarding area at Camp Fortune.

Gatineau Park provides habitat for birds such as the Pileated Woodpecker and Common Loon. Turkey Vultures and migrating hawks take advantage of the thermals at the Eardley Escarpment. There are many beavers and white-tailed deer in the park, as well as some black bears and a few wolves in more remote sections.

Pink Lake is a meromictic lake found in the park. Tiny algae within the lake give it a bright green colour. The lake's name comes from the Pink family who originally owned property in the area.

Mackenzie King donated his 600 acre property at Kingsmere to the people of Canada at his death in 1950. The Prime Minister of Canada's country retreat at Harrington Lake, and The Farm, the official residence of the Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons, and Prime Minister King's former residence, are located within the park.