Encouraging new Canadian citizens to discover Alberta’s provincial parks

Posted on: Jul 14 2011 | Posted in: ACE Announcements


Canmore... The Alberta government has partnered with the Institute for Canadian Citizenship to encourage new Canadian citizens to experience Alberta’s provincial parks. The Institute’s Cultural Access Pass program helps new citizens create their own Canadian experiences in their first year of citizenship by opening doors to Canadian culture. 

As a result of the new partnership, pass holders visiting Alberta’s nearly 500 provincial parks can enjoy:

“We want to encourage all Albertans to enjoy provincial parks regardless of how long they’ve lived here,” said Tourism, Parks and Recreation Minister Cindy Ady. “Because of this wonderful partnership, we are making provincial parks more accessible for new Canadian citizens to explore nature from an entirely new perspective.”

As pass holders, new citizens from anywhere in Canada can visit hundreds of attractions across the country including museums, galleries, provincial parks and discovery centres for free for one year from the time they become a Canadian citizen. New Canadians can register for the Cultural Access Pass through www.culturalaccesspass.ca or by calling 1-888-359-6998.

“We are absolutely thrilled to be working with Alberta Parks,” said ICC’s Executive Director and CEO, Gillian Hewitt Smith. “With this partnership, the Cultural Access Pass continues to diversify and grow exponentially. For many new citizens, visiting Alberta parks using their CAP will be their introduction to the bounty of Canada’s outdoors. It’s another reason why the CAP program is a wonderful way for new citizens to connect with all that Canada has to offer.”

The Institute for Canadian Citizenship is a national, non-profit organization that engages Canadians in citizenship through innovative programs, campaigns and partnerships designed to ensure new citizens are welcomed and included as equals, to create meaningful connections among all Canadian citizens and to foster a culture of active, engaged citizens. 

The Building Citizenship program brings together new and established Canadians at community citizenship ceremonies; the Cultural Access Pass, generously supported by the Canadian Museums Association and the RBC Foundation, offers new citizens the chance to visit more than 600 museums and galleries across Canada for free for a full year from the time they’re sworn in; and the LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium fosters a debate on the future of Canada’s civic culture. The ICC was founded and is co-chaired by the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson and John Ralston Saul. The ICC is supported by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.  For more information, visit www.icc-icc.ca.

In addition to the new partnership, the Alberta government has developed Nature as a Second Language multilingual guidebooks to encourage new Canadians to visit provincial parks, and includes information ranging from campfire safety tips to checklists on what to bring when you go camping. The guidebooks are available in French, Punjabi, Tagalog/Filipino, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Arabic and English at http://www.albertaparks.ca/naturelanguage and hard copies are on display at various Park Visitor Information Centres. More information about the Alberta parks system is available at www.AlbertaParks.ca.

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