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Photo by Gavin Young / Calgary Herald archives

“Then, this summer, the most extraordinary and egregious thing was the approval of the doubling of the capacity of the Lake Louise ski hill and the illusory argument about a trade-off, which is a bad joke.”

The Lake Louise site guidelines, which were approved on the eve of the federal election call, reduce the ski area’s leasehold by 669 hectares, returning undeveloped land to wilderness. In exchange, Lake Louise will have an option to develop in areas such as West Bowl, Hidden Bowl, Richardson Ridge and West Juniper.

It could mean more development and ultimately allow Lake Louise to accommodate up to 11,500 visitors daily — almost double its current capacity.

No one from Parks Canada was made available for comment, but officials said in a statement that they are committed to protecting the ecological integrity of the national parks.

“Strict development limits are in place to ensure the protection of ecological integrity in the mountain parks,” said the email. “Parks Canada has a rigorous development review and environmental assessment process that ensures all development proposals comply with these limits and that the parks’ ecological integrity is maintained.”

Crosbie Cotton, director of the National Parks Ski Areas Association, added that the changes proposed at Lake Louise follow all of the rules.

“They have accepted a permanent cap and they are reducing the size of the land they could use by a third,” he said, following the press conference in Banff. “One 20th of one per cent of the national parks is for ski areas, which is the reason 90 per cent of the people come here in winter.

“People seem to forget that that’s one of the iconic elements of our national parks,” Cotton said.

cderworiz@calgaryherald.com

Twitter.com/cderworiz