Parks Canada declines Waterton golf course lease

By Tim Kalinowski on March 23, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDtkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com

The Waterton not-for-profit community group which has run the Waterton Lakes Golf Course for the past 25 years is expressing its concerns that Parks Canada is not keeping the long-term needs of the golf course in mind after declining to renew its lease following the 2019 season.
In a message sent out to the community by Waterton Community Joint Venture, the group says Parks Canada’s RFP (Request for Proposals) for a new golf course manager is insufficient to cover the future infrastructure needs of the 100-year-old, 18-hole golf course.
“Are we the only ones that can run the golf course?” the letter reads in part. “No, of course not. But the community has been supporting and operating it for over 25 years, we have dedicated and experienced management and staff in place – ready and willing and able to continue, and the Waterton Community Joint Venture is prepared to be the solid foundation behind making this iconic community course be all that it can be.
“But here’s the reality,” it continues: “if the golf course is taken over for any period of time by a private operator, and that operator fails, because of the inability or an unwillingness to do what is necessary to sustain the golf course in future years, it may not be possible for us to reconstruct our current infrastructure (ie. people, machines, good will) to come back and run it again.
“We hope that Parks Canada will recognize that their RFP does not speak to the future integrity of the course, and we are going forward in the belief that our September conversation will be honoured, and that we will have the opportunity to discuss our proposal in the near future.”
The group points to several issues with the course it had explained in its own proposal to Parks Canada to renew its lease for the next 42 years.
“Our proposal recognizes that anything built on the course immediately becomes the property of Parks Canada, so in light of that, we have asked Parks Canada to give us a break on the rent while we upgrade the course and buildings,” the letter explains. “Our proposal outlines areas that need immediate attention. First and foremost is water; we just don’t have enough, and the course is suffering for the lack of it. Once we have water, the cumbersome and antiquated irrigation system needs to be replaced and the clubhouse and pro-shop need serious attention – these things are included in our proposal along with improving the golf cart fleet and the grounds equipment. These aren’t frivolous add-ons, they are necessary to the future sustainability of our course and they are going to take time and financing.”
The group explains they were told by Parks Canada it would prefer to obtain an outside, private operator for the community-run golf course going forward.
“We were told that our proposal would not be considered until they had determined that there was no outside interest in running the golf course, and that the only way for them to gauge outside interest, was through a Request for Proposals (RFP),” the letter explains. “If they didn’t receive any viable offers from the outside, they would then revisit our proposal.”
Parks Canada Waterton Lakes Field Unit Superintendent Salman Rasheed confirmed to the group in a letter of his own this week he was indeed in the process of finalizing an agreement with a new manager.
“We hope to have a lease signed and in place as soon as possible,” the letter reads in part, “and are now working with the Successful Proponent of the RFP process on a number of details.
“The Successful Proponent is inquiring as to whether you would be interested in selling any of the grounds, pro-shop and clubhouse inventories, as well as the status of the website,” Rasheed’s letter adds. “This would greatly help in getting the operations open as soon as the weather allows. They are also interested in offering employment to all of the staff that WPJC has employed for their operations.”
In response to this latest development, Waterton Community Joint Venture board chair Jody Thaell provided a statement to The Herald on Friday.
“For the past 25 years Waterton’s charming community golf course has been run by the Waterton community itself,” the statement reads. “We were looking forward to planning and celebrating the course’s hundredth birthday in 2022.
“We’re very disappointed to have not been chosen by Parks Canada as the new operator. Our experience was the basis for our proposal which focussed first on improving the quality of the course itself, followed by the replacement of the clubhouse and pro shop.
“It would be our hope that the new lessee will bring the same level of caring to the golf course that has been in place for the last 25 years.
“It is a gem of a course,” Thaell adds.
On Monday following a request for comment from the Herald, Parks Canada released a statement in response.
“The previous lease to operate the Waterton Lakes National Park Golf Course expired on March 31, 2019. Parks Canada launched a Request for Proposal (RFP) process to operate, maintain and undertake capital improvements of the site on December 22, 2020. The RFP process is a fair and accepted approach to identify a bid that meets necessary criteria. It is used to procure the most cost-effective solution based upon established evaluation criteria and is open to all Canadians. The process closed on February 8, 2021. We are still finalizing the RFP results and a lease has not yet been signed. To be fair to the evaluation process we cannot provide any further details at this time.”