Election time: MP David Wilks in Revelstoke Thursday to announce ‘new investments’ in national parks

Just like smoke hazing the summer sky signals wildfires somewhere over the mountains, federal funding announcements signal a federal election is near.

Kootenay–Columbia MP David Wilks, the Member of Parliament for Revelstoke, will be in Mount Revelstoke National Park on July 16 to make an announcement.

A July 15 media release from Parks Canada said MP Wilks will “make an announcement regarding new investments for Mount Revelstoke and Glacier national parks” at 10 a.m. on July 16 at the Monashee Lookout, the second big lookout up the Meadows in the Sky Parkway.

A Parks spokesperson said members of the public who want to drive to the event can have the fee waived if they tell staff at the tollbooth that they’re headed to the announcement. (It’s also a nice hike up there! A little over an hour from the trailhead by the Revelstoke Railway Museum.)

What’s being announced? Parks Canada staff are tight-lipped. The funding announcement didn’t say, but the Revelstoke Mountaineer can speculate based on information we’ve gathered over the past months:

-Paving on the Meadows in the Sky Parkway?

It’s our understanding that paving is planned for the road that leads to the summit of Mount Revelstoke.

-Work on the Trans-Canada Highway in Glacier National Park?

It’s also our understanding a fairly significant works program on the on Trans-Canada Highway in Glacier National Park has been in the works for months. We understand this could include building pullout lanes, paving and other highway improvements.

In his own past statements, Wilks has said he’s targeting highway works on the federal portion of the highway in Glacier National Park.

It seems unlikely that MP Wilks would head into the federal election without some kind of Trans-Canada Highway upgrade announcement. Earlier this year, MP Wilks made a public show of a $5 billion funding request for Trans-Canada Highway improvements in the federal budget, but no funding was announced in the budget. However, at that time, Wilks alluded to funding for Parks Canada, saying some money from a $2.8 billion fund for Parks Canada announced in 2014 could be used for infrastructure projects like regional federal parks.

-Some kind of a heritage thing?

It’s our understanding that representatives from the Revelstoke “heritage” community have been invited to the announcement. It’s unclear what the heritage component is. The Parkway celebrated its 100th anniversary last year — somehow connecting the parkway paving to heritage?

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MP Wilks will be joined by MP Colin Carrie, Parliamentary Secretary to the federal minister responsible for Parks Canada.