A new one-stop-shop for outdoor recreation

Armstrong Spallumcheen Trails Society photo

A big thanks to everyone who sent a note to their MLA in the past month with a request to invest more in outdoor recreation. Nearly 1,000 British Columbians helped us advocate for more operational funding support for Recreation Sites and Trails BC in the 2022 provincial budget.

The new budget did not offer the funding increase that we know is sorely needed to repair BC's cherished but broken recreation system. Decades of chronic underfunding have left BC with overburdened trail networks, recreation sites that have fallen into disrepair, cultural and environmental damage, a huge backlog of deferred maintenance, too few staff, lack of capacity to engage effectively with Indigenous governments, and volunteer groups who are burnt out by the sheer volume of work and a lack of support.

However, the new budget reveals a significant change to how outdoor recreation will be administered in BC moving forward. Recreation Sites and Trails BC (RSTBC) will be moving from the Ministry of Forests to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. This means that the Ministry of Environment will now be responsible for both provincial recreation agencies, RSTBC and BC Parks (which has a dual mandate for conservation and recreation).

Having both agencies under one roof and one minister could bode very well in terms of ensuring effective and efficient coordination of outdoor recreation in BC and that an ambitious vision and strategy can be developed that enable all British Columbians to have quality opportunities for recreation while safeguarding the integrity of BC's natural spaces.

We are excited about this new chapter and look forward to working with the ministry as a partner to ensure both agencies deliver on their recreation mandates and have the resources to do so.