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Letter to the Editor: Are we messing around with Wakamow Valley heritage?

A letter to the editor from Michel Labonte
letter to the editor graphic stock
Letter to the editor. (Shutterstock)

I am very saddened by the announcement made by the Saskatchewan Government and the Wakamow Valley Authority in regard to the renaming of our old River Park Campground and the renaming of part of the River Park Walking trail.

We did find out that the campground will be from now on called the Lorne Calvert Campground and part of the walking trail will be called “The Lorne Calvert Loop.”

Now we will have to pay to make a new sign, new brochures, changing the name on the map and modifying many websites on many levels of city hall & others levels of government. I am sure there could be many additional costs that this will create besides paying for the time that our own public servants will need to do all that.  

Don't get me wrong; I am not against the idea of identifying something with a name of a politician, artist or any other kinds of identification, as long as it truly relate to the environment or to the cause that the name is there to represent.

Our River Park Campground known as that should not be changed. I just can't make the connection between this new name they chose and what it has to do with camping by the river or a trail in the woods in Wakamow Valley park.  

When I read “The River Park Campground", it give me the idea that the campground is close to a river. When I read “The River of Turns", it gives me an idea of some possible walkway.

I do appreciate the story and the connection that the Calvert Family and many others family have with the valley, but I believe in regard to this situation we should not mix politics with the livelihood of our park. We should keep our old name for the campground and the path as they are. We should also re-change our Provincial building / landmark policy dedication that was changed in 2017 that outline the guideline for renaming building and landmark after former Premier.

This new change policy should say that we don't need to rename buildings or landmarks after former Premiers and so on. Our Politicians are already in our historic “Book of Life“  so to speak and I don't think we truly need to perpetuate this pattern of our colonization to pass and spend our time and money changing name and things that don't truly need to be changed at all...,,  like the re-branding of some of our Saskatchewan corporations for example.

We sure enjoy having such a lovely valley here to go to. It is our precious heritage to care for and to keep as natural as possible, including the name we chose to connect with this beautiful natural environment.

Thanks for your time

Michel Labonte


    


 

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