SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The East Arm National Park is still several years away but the advisor working on the park proposal said it's likely if and when a park is finalized, people will have to pay an entry fee, even if they're boating.

A 33,000 square kilometre area of the East Arm of the Great Slave Lake is now under consideration for a new National Park. - image courtesy of Parks Canada

Gordon Hamre, with the Park Establishment Branch in Yellowknife, said nothing will be finalized until after negotiations with the Akaitcho First Nations in Lutsel K'e and the Metis Nation, both of which are scheduled to begin later this spring.

He said the discussions will determine how to incorporate economic and employment opportunities, as well as the aboriginal groups' vision for the park.

After agreements from the two groups, parliament in Ottawa can legislate a new park in the east arm of Great Slave Lake.

Hamre said Parks Canada will also be holding public consultations in the fall 2010 to get feedback from people who use the park and live in the area.

While nothing is concrete for the East Arm Park, Parks Canada entrance fees are standard across the country. They are currently $9.80 per day for an adult, $19.60 for a family or group. Annual rates are $67.70 for an adult and $136.40 for a family or group.

Under national parks regulations, people are not allowed to hunt or carry loaded firearms. People fishing within the park will require a national parks fishing licence separate from their territorial licence. The hunting and fishing regulations typically only apply to non-aboriginal people, Hamre said.

Great Slave MLA Glen Abernethy, who sails his boat in the East Arm, said he wouldn't mind paying an entrance fee if the money went back into the park, but with so many different entry points, it would be almost impossible to ensure everyone paid an entrance fee.

"I have no idea how they would ever, ever administer anything like that. It makes some sense as long as the money was being used within the park," he said.

Doug Witty, owner of the Yellowknife boat dealership Force One, said he goes to the East Arm once or twice a year, so it would be unlikely he would buy a season pass. He said since the area is so remote, most people would access it by boat, making admission fees difficult to enforce.

"It could be a waste of money for them to administer it versus who will visit it," he said.

Witty didn't foresee it being a tourist draw, especially given the amount of wilderness there is in the NWT.

"I don't think calling it a park will make anyone come. People already treat it as a park," Witty said of the East Arm.

But Hamre hopes it'll bring people to the area. He said similar parks have staffed visitor reception centres and the East Arm likely will too.

"There will be a park manager, there will be an administrative presence. Unlike any other northern National Park, this is an area that will be used year-round," he said.

Hamre said there will be wardens assigned to the park, but said the number and location will be determined later.

Using the example of Nahanni National Park, he said people who operate businesses – like rafting adventures or fly-in tours – will still be able to operate.

The parks boundaries and details of how the park would be staffed is still years away from being finalized, said Hamre. A 33,000 square kilometre area is now under consideration. He said it was unlikely that whole area would become a park.

In 2007, after decades of discussion about the East Arm being a potential site for a National Park, the federal government committed $3 million to studying the feasibility of a national park in the East Arm.

Abernethy didn't dispute the area was worth preserving.

"It's pristine. It's like a sanctuary. When you're stressed out in the rest of the world you can go to East Arm."