The Fort Smith Métis Council says whooping crane tours slated to begin this week in Wood Buffalo National Park should never have been planned without consultations with local aboriginal groups.
Thirty people are supposed to be taking the tours this summer, which cost between $1300 and $3800. Parks Canada wouldn’t confirm if the helicopter and hiking tours set for this week and later in the summer have been cancelled.
On Friday, the Salt River First Nation said it planned to go the federal court for an injunction to stop the tours, which are scheduled to begin today.
Ken Hudson, the president of Fort Smith’s Métis Council, says Parks Canada never came to them, either.
Hudson says they have concerns about the altitude of the flights over the park. He says Parks Canada is proposing flight ceilings of about 300 metres for planes and 360 metres for helicopters.
He says he would have liked the opportunity to consult with the Canadian Wildlife Service or the people who monitor the whooping cranes about how the proximity of aircraft could affect wildlife.
“If we consult with them and they advise us that no, that’s way too low, we’d get back to Parks and get them to change it before we give it support,” says Hudson. “But we weren’t given that opportunity.”
Hudson says that if First Nations are resorting to injunctions to stop the tours, that shows there’s something very wrong with the system.
Salt River Chief Frieda Martselos says she first heard about the plan to offer tours through the media. She says the first time the plan was discussed with Parks was at a meeting in April.
“It is an endangered species,” says Martselos. “It has an effect on the buffalo, also, and all fur-bearing animals because they’re going to be landing helicopters just a few kilometres from the nesting area and using blinds. Those are big things. And Parks Canada has a duty to consult Salt River First Nations.”
The whooping crane tours are still listed on Parks Canada’s website.
