This last month celebrations were held for the 125th anniversary of two significant and unrelated events to western Canada: the creation of Banff National Park and the Métis Northwest Rebellion led by Louis Riel.
If you aren’t familiar, here’s a little bit of the history:
- Banff National Park was created in 1885, the first national park in Canada and the third such park in the world. The park was created to protect the Banff hot springs, which had been discovered by two railway workers in 1883 and were the focus of conflicting commercial plans. Instead of allowing the hot springs to be developed, John A. Macdonald declared the area a protected space. Banff is now one of the primary tourist destinations in Canada and the world, receiving almost 5 million visitors a year.
- The Northwest Rebellion was a brief and, ultimately, unsuccessful uprising by the Métis people. It was some 15 years after the Red River Rebellion, but the issues were much the same. The Métis people were concerned about the distribution of land following the influx of immigrant settlers, the effects of poverty and the fate of the buffalo, which were being hunted to extinction. There were numerous skirmishes and battles—including the Battle of Batoche, where Métis people gather annually in July to celebrate their culture and heritage—that resulted in the defeat of the Métis people and the hanging of Louis Riel.
Both of these events are significant to the character and development of western Canada and for this reason alone they are important to remember. It also strikes me that the larger issues they represent are still ones that we are dealing with as a region today. Namely, we are still trying to figure out how to balance environmental conservation with economic development, the rights and roles of aboriginal people in western Canada and everything in between.
Today, Canada’s environmental record is one of the worst among OECD countries and the West contributes substantially to that record. Across 25 environmental performance indicators used by the OECD, Canada is not among the five best countries on any measure and is among the five worst on 17 of them. We have a resource-based economy that relies on high energy and water inputs and extraction techniques that are detrimental to environmental conservation. There is an ongoing debate between industry, governments, NGOs and citizens on precisely where the balancing point between economic development and environmental conservation should be. One of John A. MacDonald’s legacy from this debate was the creation of Banff National Park. I wonder if we can hope to be as successful in carving out a positive legacy from today’s environmental debate?
Similarly, across every measure of social and economic well being, the Aboriginal population in western Canada fares poorly compared to the general populace. According to census data the Aboriginal population is three times as likely to not have a high school education, more than twice as likely to be unemployed, roughly half of all Aboriginals survive on an annual income of $10,000 or less, over 20% report some form of physical or sexual abuse, they are much more likely to be incarcerated, have a diabetes prevalence rate of 3-5 times the general populace, and there are many other equally depressing statistics. Many of these statistics reflect the symptoms of poverty, the same thing Aboriginal leaders were concerned about in 1885.
My point is that we have been dealing with the similar issues around the environment and Aboriginals for 125 years. While we pause to recognize these historic events, now is perhaps also a good time for new, out of the box, thinking and creative approaches. We should be looking very carefully at the policies and programs of other countries (e.g., Australia and New Zealand) with similar challenges to find and implement their best practices. Maybe we should create a policy platform to educate and then employ aboriginal people in environmental conservation. That might help both the social conditions of Canadian aboriginal peoples and our environmental record.
Whatever we do, we need to get serious about it now, 125 years seems long enough.
Posted by: Shawna Ritchie
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