Enewsletter

Now that Canada's iconic Sable Island will officially become one of our country's newest national parks, the debate has begun over what kind of national park it will be.

In comments submitted to Parks Canada in August, Nature Canada recommended that visitor numbers should be strictly limited inside the future Sable Island National Park to maintain the Island's sensitive sand dune systems.

We also recommended that Parks Canada should obtain full rights to Sable Island's subsurface, to ensure the park is permanently protected from industrial development. Parks Canada typically has exclusive rights to all subsurface lands in National Parks and National Marine Conservation Areas.

"Sable Island is a cherished part of Canada's maritime natural and cultural heritage, and a national park designation will provide the island's flora and fauna with the highest possible level of federal protection," said Alex MacDonald, Nature Canada's protected areas manager. "But visitor numbers and off-limits zones must be seriously considered to mitigate human impacts on the area. These and other measures can be achieved in the mandatory park management plan."

Sable Island: A Unique Ecological Community

Sable Island, a thin sliver of wind-swept sand and grass 160 km southeast of Nova Scotia, is a globally and nationally significant Important Bird Area (IBA) situated along a major migratory flyway.

The Island is home to the at-risk Ipswich Sparrow subspecies, the endangered Roseate Tern and many other bird species during the breeding season and the spring and fall migrations. Globally significant concentrations of Common Tern, Great Black-backed Gull and Herring Gull are found there.

Only a handful of people, mostly government scientists, reside there year-round, along with roughly 300 free-roaming wild horses. Sable Island sustains American eel populations in its freshwater ponds and a grey seal herd on its shores. There are more than 175 plant species and 600 invertebrates found on the Island.

Sable Island National Park: Challenges of Visitor Use

Given Sable Island's fragility, small size and remoteness, Nature Canada has recommended that the national park predominantly be zoned a "wilderness area" with visitor numbers strictly controlled over time. Parks Canada should develop and implement a visitor's manual that clearly outlines the terms of visitation, permissible activities, policies and prohibitions for visitors to Sable Island National Park.

To minimize disturbance to the wildlife on the Island, tourism activities should be:

• Restricted to designated portions of the island;
• Restricted to the months of August through October;
• Limited to no more than 24 persons on the island at one time;
• Limited to no more than 500 persons per year.

Instead of investing in on-site programming and infrastructure for large numbers of visitors, Parks Canada can use such funds to maintain and expand biological and environmental research and monitoring programs on and around the island. The data collected through such programs is of great value to researchers around the world and would inevitably help to better understand natural processes and document environmental change in this fragile environment.

Subsurface Rights: Setting a Dangerous Precedent?

ExxonMobil Canada Properties currently holds two Significant Discovery Licenses (SDLs) on Sable Island related to natural gas deposits, which Nature Canada understands have been held by the company and its predecessors for approximately 40 years. ExxonMobil has publicly suggested that the company's offshore operations around Sable Island will not be expanded in the near future.

Exploration and production of natural gas resources from Sable Island's subsurface are not consistent with the aims of a national park designation and conflicts with the spirit of the Canada National Parks Act. National parks are meant to be places where natural processes prevail above all else and they are not meant to be used for industrial activities.

No new statutory tools should be developed under the Canada National Parks Act to make tenure of Sable Island's subsurface rights an exceptional case within Canada's national parks system. This would be a dangerous statutory precedent to establish, especially considering that industry may lobby for similar arrangements within existing and future national parks and national marine conservation areas. We simply cannot compromise our national parks and national marine conservation areas – Canada's gold standard for wilderness protection – in this way.

Instead, Nature Canada has asked Parks Canada to work with ExxonMobil Canada Ltd., the Province of Nova Scotia and the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board to obtain full rights to Sable Island's subsurface, and to permanently prohibit development on Sable Island – above or below its iconic sand dunes.

Sable Island National Park: Consultation Continues

Nature Canada will continue to participate directly in shaping the vision for a future Sable Island National park. We're optimistic for a positive outcome to this national park designation process.

Given the great deal of public fascination with this beautiful, tiny slice of nature, it's essential that Sable Island is established as a wilderness park with strict visitor limits and management policies. It's equally important that Parks Canada avoid setting a dangerous precedent for a "new model of national park" under the Canada National Parks Act by not holding the exclusive rights to Sable Island's entire surface and subsurface areas.