Alberta’s heli-tourism industry is taking off, but some critics want its wings clipped.

People are sight-seeing the backcountry from the air and flying in to hike, ski and even hold group barbecues in remote wilderness areas they wouldn’t otherwise get to.

However, the popularity of helicopter tours is worrying an eco-tourism operator, national and Alberta conservation groups, and – in a recent case – the federal parks agency.

All have expressed concerns about an application by Icefield Helicopters to drop a restriction in a development permit that allows the company to operate a heliport in Cline River, in the pristine Bighorn wilderness area next to Banff National Park.

Icefield Helicopters photo
Icefield Helicopters is seeking to drop a restriction limiting it to three aircraft.

Development in the area west of Nordegg is under the control of the County of Clearwater. Icefield Helicopters wants a condition eliminated in its county development permit that limits the company to operate with a maximum of three helicopters.

Joe Baker, a manager for Clearwater County, said most of the letters the county has received in response to the application either express concern or are opposed outright to lifting the restriction.

But Ralph Sliger, a helicopter pilot who owns Icefield Helicopters, said there’s no need for people to be concerned about his company’s operation.

“Prior to this application, we’ve never had a letter of complaint,” Sliger said. “There isn’t a problem with anything.”

Icefield runs heli-tours from April to November. Weather permitting, its helicopters fly seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The company offers several sight- seeing tours, including over the Columbia Icefield and glaciers in Banff Park, and over the Cline and Coral river canyons.

Icefield also takes people heli-fishing to alpine lakes and heli-hiking – even on full-course heli-barbecues complete with flown-in chef and staff.

Sliger maintains that an eco-tourism operator who runs a lodge about four kilometres from Icefield’s heliport in Cline River is the only one opposed to dropping the permit restriction on the number of helicopters. “They’ve got everybody riled up on their own,” he said.

Alan Ernst and his wife Madeleine own and operate nearby Aurum Lodge. It’s a solar-powered, environmentally friendly 22-bed lodge for visitors who want to experience the area’s wilderness and solitude.

But Alan Ernst said his clients are telling him they can’t hike anymore in some backcountry areas – such as the Cline River Valley, Coral Creek and Pinto Lake – without hearing the constant drone of Icefield’s helicopters overhead.

“We feel it’s an activity that doesn’t belong in a wilderness area like this,” Ernst said.

Anna Kauffman, a spokeswoman for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, said Icefield Helicopters established its heliport in Cline River after the province issued a tourism-development lease to Clearwater County in 1999.

“The terms of the lease are consistent with the land use approved under the lease, and are also consistent with the integrated resource plan for the David Thompson area,” Kauffman said.

Clearwater County’s Joe Baker said Icefield successfully appealed an operating-time condition in its development permit a year ago, expanding its flights from eight hours during mid-day to 13.5 hours a day.

Ernst said he could live with his heli-tourism neighbour if Icefield abided by its limit of three helicopters and returned to the more restrictive operating hours.

But Sliger said that other heli-tourism companies in Alberta don’t have any restrictions on the number of helicopters they can operate or the hours they fly. He also pointed out – which Ernst acknowledged – that Icefield’s helicopters don’t fly over Aurum Lodge.

But Dianne Pachal, of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), said Icefield’s helicopters are flying over the protected Kootenay Plains Ecological Reserve, along the south boundary of the White Goat Wilderness Area and into Banff National Park – a UN World Heritage Site.

“People are going on mountaineering trips and may have spent their life savings coming to enjoy a wilderness experience in the backcountry in Banff. And then they’ve got this helicopter flying over them,” Pachal said.

The Alberta Wilderness Association is also calling for more restrictions on heli-operations. Pachal said the Alberta government began drafting a policy in the 1980s to manage the heli-tourism industry, but never followed through with it. “The province and Transport Canada and Parks Canada should be working together on this to put in some meaningful restrictions . . .,” she said.

Baker said the input that Clearwater County received includes a letter signed by Bill Fisher, then-superintendent of Banff Park’s field unit (Fisher is now executive director for all seven of Canada’s mountain parks). In the June 13 letter, Fisher asks that Icefield’s three-helicopter limit be continued, and that the company develop a working agreement with Parks Canada for any flights over Banff Park.

But in a follow-up July 5 letter, which Baker said also has Fisher’s signature, Parks Canada requests only that the heli-tour operator be required to develop the working agreement. There’s no mention of the limit on helicopters.

Marjorie Huculak, a spokeswoman for Parks Canada, said the agency has a “really good relationship” with other Alberta heli-tourism companies to ensure their flights don’t disturb wildlife or other park visitors.

When asked to clarify the different approaches Parks Canada took in the two letters, Huculak replied that “we’re beginning the dialogue with them (Icefield Helicopters) to see how we can work with them a little better to let them know what our needs are.”

Icefield’s closest neighbours, Ron and Wendy Killick, run the David Thompson Resort about a kilometre away. The Killicks said their guests have never complained about the heli-tour operation and they have no problem with Icefield operating as many helicopters as it wants.

Jackie Chang, a former resource manager and planner who runs Assiniboine Heli Tours in Canmore, said if Icefield is allowed to operate with more than three helicopters, she expects it will have no impact on wildlife in the region.

Baker said Clearwater County’s municipal planning commission and a provincial representative hope to make a decision on Icefield’s application at a meeting Oct. 9.