An old provincial park in central Newfoundland could become the first of several in the province to be put back into use under a plan to revitalize decommissioned parks.
On Friday the Newfoundland and Labrador government issued a request for proposals for the use of the former provincial park in Glenwood, a community just west of Gander.
It's the first of several RFPs the government is expected to post that aim to bring recreational land decommissioned in the mid-1990s back into use.
"Many of them have been absolutely fallow and vacant and unused, with no benefit to anyone since then. It's time to fix that," Gerry Byrne, fisheries and land resources minister, told the Central Morning Show.
The RFP is for a 92-hectare area on the south side of the Trans-Canada Highway, a third of which is water and shoreline. It was opened as a park in 1966 and then decommissioned in 1995.
Appealing to locals and tourists alike
The government hopes to bring this park, and others like it, into use for both locals and tourists.
"There's a growing tourism industry in Newfoundland and Labrador that would like to very much see these resources, this capacity, put into place," Byrne said.
"To hold on to these [parks] and just leave them fallow while our tourism industry expands and grows so substantially just doesn't make any sense."
Recreational needs have changed since the land was decommissioned in 1995, he said. For example, more campers and day visitors are using RVs instead of tents, he said, which means that the parks will have to offer different services than they used to.
And the water access on the Glenwood land plays to the interests of those RV-using visitors, he said.
Only looking for recreational use
Proposals for the RFP will be accepted until April 27. The successful proponent will apply for a Crown Land grant for the park, or a portion of the park.
"I hope to have this property in a user's hands [shortly] after the close of the application deadline," Byrne said.
The government isn't looking to use these lands for non-recreational purposes, Byrne said — only proposals for parks, campgrounds and other tourism-related uses will be accepted.
"We're not going to consider proposals that do not embrace … recreational tourism values [and] recreational values, not only for the community but for economic opportunities for the community," he said.
"This particular parcel of land in Glenwood itself really speaks to that."