First Nations frustrated with duration of Joffre Lakes Park closure
Park will be closed in September as province says it aims to balance cultural practices and public access
Two First Nations are concerned with a newly announced month-long closure of one of B.C.’s most popular provincial parks, as they say it is only a fraction of the dates they had asked for.
The provincial government announced Tuesday that Pipi7iyekw/Joffre Lakes Provincial Park will be closed to recreational visitors between Sept. 2 and Oct. 3.
But that’s not as long as the Lil’wat Nation and N’Quatqua First Nation, on whose unceded territories the park lies, had requested.
Dean Nelson, political chief of Lil’wat Nation, said it’s “disappointing and disheartening” that the province did not honour the nations’ request.
“This is not reconciliation,” he said. “This is a continuation of colonial decision-making, you know, disregarding our needs and values on the land.”
Last year, Joffre Lakes Park was closed for 60 days, according to the province, and in 2025, B.C. Parks has agreed to close the park for a total of 68 days.
“The [nations] requested 103 days of closures, beyond what we felt able to accommodate while supporting continued public use,” the Environment Ministry said in an emailed statement.
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COMMENT:
Here we go again…too much is never enough ???
WTF ?
Joffre Lakes, before this crap , had 180,000 annual visitors in 2021
This is kind of what I deduced would happen….these First Nations feel emboldened and are acting like vampires sucking us dry and running roughshod over the rest of us ,moreso after the COWICHAN case. They feel they have the duty / right/ obligation to throw their weight around, acting like “God”. and bullying the rest of us after our very own elected representatives sold us out.
In the Joffre Lakes issue..they aren’t happy with exclusive use of the area for 60 days……they actually wanted over 100 + days of exclusive use.They wanted August 23 to Oct.22. Huh ?
These obnoxious and UNgrateful First Nations have a population in BC of approx. 290,000 or 6% of the 5,700,000 TOTAL BC citizens.
I really don’t think the other 94% …or 5,400,000 of the rest of BC… ..is going to tolerate this much longer and if the First Nations continue with these ill-advised threats and cowardly bullying it won’t end well….. as HISTORY has shown,universally, various levels of tolerance have limits and resultant action are proportional to given threats and bullying.
The use of the new term ” Indian Fatigue” is growing.
Best Regards
Roland