Spotlight Staff
Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park is one of five provincial parks that will be more accessible for people with physical disabilities to fish.
Improvements have been made under a $3 million plan to create accessible experiences in 15 provincial parks by 2020.
“Alberta’s parks are for everyone to enjoy,” Environment and Parks Minister Shannon Phillips says in a news release.
“By improving accessibility in our parks, our government is helping more Albertans benefit from being out in the prairies, mountains and boreal landscapes.”
Other new site from all over the province include Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, Bow Valley Provincial Park- Mount Lorette Pond, Pigeon Lake Provincial Park, and Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park
“Being immersed in nature for a day or a week can be a life-changing experience for persons isolated by four walls,” says Ross Wein, president of Alberta Abilities Lodges Society.
“I commend Alberta Parks for breaking down barriers facing one in every 10 Albertans.”
The 15 accessibility projects will be known as the Cecile Buhl One-Kilometre Experience, ensuring access of a minimum of one kilometre, along with parking and accessible washrooms.
Buhl was an educator and an advocate for accessibility who volunteered on audits of Alberta provincial parks. She died in November 2016.
Alberta Parks continues to implement accessibility and inclusion in support of its “Everyone Belongs Outside” strategy.
The province will also begin construction this year on two additional replacement cabins at William Watson Lodge in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, scheduled to open in 2018.
The $2.8-million project follows the completion of two other replacement cabins at the popular destination, which supports seniors and persons with mobility challenges.