By Dori Modney (@Dori_Modney on Twitter)

New Building to Replace Waterton Park’s 58-Year Old Visitor Centre

Mar 11, 2016 | 3:16 PM

WATERTON PARK:  Superintendent Ifan Thomas calls it an excellent position to be in, as he considers the infrastructure money being spent across his domain.

The Federal Government announced in July of 2015 that more than $107 Million would be spent on the park’s infrastructure, with planning and work scheduled over the course of five years.

The money, is a portion of the $2.6 Billion federal investment to rehabilitate infrastructure within protected sites across Canada. That includes historic sites, National Parks and National Marine Conservation areas, which will share the money to improve their facilities.

A week ago, details were released about $24-Million of the $107-Million being used for the Akamina Parkway project, to repair the roads, re-configure the trail heads and redevelopment of the Cameron Lake day-use area.

Now, there is information about $7.6 Million being designated for a new park Visitor Centre.

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The Park has seen a 50 per cent increase in visitors over the past 15-years, with numbers going from 300,000 to over 477,000 last year.

Park Superintendent Ifan Thomas, says the current visitor centre can’t handle those numbers.

“It’s a tiny facility – only about 50 square metres. It’s smaller than some facilities in parks in the arctic that I’m familiar with. The news that we got last year that we were getting funds to replace it with a proper sized facility, will allow us not just to provide visitor information but, really, properly and thoroughly interpret the site and all that it has to offer.”

Park officials began a community plan in 2000 to identify a site for a new Visitor’s centre when money became available.

In 2010, a management plan reaffirmed a location in the town site but suggested looking just outside the town.

After further investigation, the Town site was confirmed as the new site and $7.6 Million has been allotted from the $107 million in Federal Infrastructure money for the park.

While the new centre is well within the park, it is in an area where most visitors congregate and will offer views in all directions and reinforce the park’s ecological, cultural and historical significance, while taking advantage of existing parking.

“If we want to make sure the facility is present for people throughout their visit, we have to put it where they are,” explained Thomas.

As they have now decided on a location, the next phase will be design, which will begin shortly, and a consultant will help with that stage. The public will be engaged during the design process which has to be complete by year-end.

Construction is expected to begin in 2018 with the building finished in 2019.

As for the existing Visitor Centre, which is on the main road into the town site, across from the entrance to the Prince of Wales hotel, Thomas says they will look at all their options before making a decision about the facility, which was built in 1958. He notes the centre in located at the trail head for ‘Bear’s Hump’, which is the most popular trail in the park, which is not expected to change.

“It will continue to be a parking area and an access point for that trail. But, what we actually do with the facility we’re going to have to explore that and we have a few years to do that. Off the top of my head, I would imagine we would keep some public washrooms there because of the amount of traffic that goes there, and we might look at some type of viewing platform because it does offer a really lovely view looking south into Montana and Glacier National Park.”