6 min. read
Summary
- The All-season Resorts Act was passed in late 2024 and the related policies released in late 2025.
- The act gives the tourism minister, who has been mandated to grow tourism revenue to $25 billion by 2035, the authority to designate land for resort development.
- Critics say the new system removes guardrails and increases risks to the environment.
In Alberta, there are growing concerns about new legislation that seeks to fast-track and expand tourism in the Rocky Mountains — which critics say comes with a huge environmental cost.
In late 2025, the Alberta government released new details about how its controversial All-season Resorts Act will play out. At the same time, it announced the first all-season resort areas, all of which are in the Rocky Mountains.
These areas are chunks of land with a new status allowing developers to apply to build year-round recreation destinations through a fast-tracked process.
The Alberta government says all-season resorts are a “key component” for the Tourism Ministry to reach its goal of growing tourism revenues to $25 billion by 2035. It says the new processes increase investor confidence and offer “tailored support to the resort development industry.”
Critics say the rules mean developers can circumvent and undermine environmental laws.
Here’s what you need to know.
1. The All-season Resorts Act gives the tourism minister decision-making power on some large-scale recreation projects
In Alberta, the All-season Resorts Act, passed in late 2024, makes it easier to build large-scale, year-round tourism projects on Crown land by moving approvals for these projects into the Ministry of Tourism and Sport.
Previously, developments that raised environmental concerns would be regulated through multiple laws. They would also be reviewed by an arm of the Alberta government called the Natural Resources Conservation Board.
The board typically reviews whether projects that require environmental impact assessments under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act are in the public interest, like the Three Sisters development in Canmore; or some mining, quarry or dam projects.
Under the all-season resorts umbrella, the Ministry of Tourism and Sport gets the final say on projects, which critics say lacks the same standards of environmental review.
It’s a system University of Calgary law professor Shaun Fluker describes as a “fiefdom of the minister.”
“There are no guardrails,” he said.
2. The Tourism Ministry has a 150-day window for approving new resort proposals
The first step toward a new resort proposal being fast-tracked through the All-season Resorts Act is a land-use change.
Land is selected by the government to be designated as a new kind of public lands zone called an “all-season resorts area.” Before that designation, the ministry is meant to do Indigenous consultation and public engagement on the land-use changes.
After land is designated, a developer can submit something called an “expression of interest” to signal they want to apply to develop a resort within that area.
With the go-ahead from the Tourism Ministry, a developer submits an application, including a master development plan; environmental assessment; business and capital investment plans; proposed approaches to landscape compatibility and integrating the resort into nearby municipalities. They have to identify constraints and “any other information as required.”
At this stage, the developer also has to carry out public engagement and consultation
with Indigenous communities on the development plan. Once the ministry decides an application is complete, a decision is made within 150 days.
With the green light from the Tourism Ministry, construction can start.
3. Land can be removed from provincial parks to build resorts
Three all-season resort areas were designated in December 2025 under the act and, perhaps confusingly, named after the resorts there: Fortress, Nakiska and Castle All-season Resort Areas. The first two are in Kananaskis Country and the third is near Waterton Lakes National Park.
All three areas already offer winter activities, to varying degrees. After land is designated under the act, developers are able to apply to build or expand into as an all-season resort.
Fortress is the only area with a development application underway — an expansion of the existing ski resort that could bring in nearly 10,000 additional daily visitors.
A fourth area, Silvertip Gondola, largely in Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park overlooking the town of Canmore, is in review to become a designated all-seasons resort area. The designation would require a change in park boundaries and an amendment to the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan, the land use framework for the region.
To make way for these resort areas, some provincial parkland has already been shifted out of protected status. That includes 131 hectares of parkland that has lost its protected status to make way for Fortress, according to an analysis from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
A Ministry of Tourism and Sport spokesperson told CBC the government conducted public and Indigenous consultation in 2023 about year-round resorts more broadly and “found strong support for the designations.” Critics say the decision to remove land from parks happened without public consultation.
“It’s a little bit of the fox watching the hen house,” Katie Morrison, executive director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Southern Alberta chapter, said.
4. Experts say the whole approval process is fast-tracked
The All-season Resorts Act passed in December 2024. The first three areas were designated in December 2025, at the same time the official policy was released.
In January, Fortress was the first to apply with a project proposal, a year-round resort in Kananaskis. The development would bring roughly 10,000 daily visitors to a water-sensitive region home to sensitive wildlife and already under strain from tourism.
Morrison, of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, said the entire legislative process, from tabling the act to implementation, including 150-day statutory timelines for decisions on applications, has been rushed. And rushing, she said, doesn’t make sense here.
“Some of the reasons we have had delays in approval on these things is because this is a really complex landscape,” she said.
5. The environmental assessment for the first development application under the act is not ‘credible,’ according to experts
The Fortress proposal includes an environmental assessment Morrison calls “woefully inadequate” for assessing impacts.
Fluker, the law professor, said the inadequacy of the assessment “undermines the whole approval process.”
“No credible impact assessment process would take that as a final submission because there’s really nothing usable in it,” Fluker said.
Though the proposal raises questions around water use in drought-stricken southern Alberta, the environmental assessment does not address where more water would come from, just that it may be required.
“That is exactly the kind of issue or topic that a credible impact assessment process grapples [with],” Fluker said.
For its part, Fortress says the project team is dedicated to sustainability. “We aim to be the most water-efficient resort in Alberta,” project director Danielle Vlemmiks said in response to The Narwhal’s questions over email.
An assessment should put forth enough data for experts to evaluate the potential impacts of a project and come up with solutions, Fluker said. With this assessment, he said, “I don’t know how anybody could do that.”
The Alberta government did not respond to detailed questions from The Narwhal.
