Most Quebec provincial parks to allow dogs, starting this spring
Starting this spring, most provincial parks will be open to dogs as long as their owners adhere to certain rules, such as sticking to the designated paths and keeping their animals on a leash.
"Simply put, it's a question of accessibility," Simon Boivin, spokesperson for SEPAQ, the provincial agency that manages the parks, told CBC Montreal's Daybreak earlier this week.
"Dog owners have been asking for years to have access to the national parks. And SEPAQ has always applied a precautionary principle, not allowing them."
A three-year pilot project was launched in 2016 to see if SEPAQ could allow dogs while still preserving the natural environment and experience of other park visitors.
It proved successful, and now dogs will be allowed in certain provincially run destinations starting May 17. They include 16 parks and several campgrounds and tourist centres.
Currently, just five parks allows dogs as part of that initial pilot project, and those parks will continue to allow dogs until that time. Guide dogs are allowed everywhere.
Anticosti and Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé parks and a handful of other areas will not allow dogs because of their "specific biological constraints" and other characteristics, SEPAQ says in a statement Tuesday.
Dogs must stay on certain trails, campsites
Leashed dogs will only be allowed on clearly marked trails and on campsites, Boivin said, or about 20 per cent of the park areas.
"Sensitive environments" have to be protected, said Sheldon Harvey, vice-president of the conservation charity Bird Protection Quebec.
Harvey said dogs shouldn't be a problem as long as the leash rule is enforced, because when dogs are off leash, they risk disturbing ground nests and chasing birds.
Boivin said leashes measuring no longer than three metres will be required.
"That is the best way to preserve the natural environment, along with the fact that the dog owner has to clean up after [their] dog," he sad. "That is just the civil thing to do."
Most dog walkers followed the rules: Boivin
During the pilot project, about 95 per cent of people followed the rules, and other users were satisfied with the way dog owners were behaving, he said.
Boivin said surveillance would be increased.
"We will be more rigorous in giving out tickets that may come with fines to those who don't follow the rules," he said.
Park fines can range between $50 to $1,400. Aggressive or persistently loud dogs may be expelled, he said.
Wintertime access will be further restricted, he said, because the pilot project showed that dog owners were less compliant when the parks were emptier.
Even though there is "not a guard hiding behind every tree in the parks," Boivin said it is a privilege to visit the parks with dogs, and that privilege can be taken away.
The area that dog owners can visit may get smaller or entire parks may be closed to dogs if people don't follow the rules, he said.
"A large part of the responsibility is in the hands of dog owners. Most of them are really responsible and disciplined."
