North Lake Provincial Park opens on Canada Day

Nestled under a canopy of trees, next to a body of blue water is North Lake Provincial Park. 

North Lake's 31-hectares make up the first new provincial park to open in 24 years, according to Mark Taylor, spokesperson for the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture.

"The pandemic's been difficult for everybody. So there's a huge appetite for people to get out and enjoy the outdoors. It's a great time to add a new provincial park to the tourism network," Taylor said.

The St. Croix River begins at North Lake, 48 kilometres southwest of Woodstock, and runs all the way down to empty into Passamaquoddy Bay.

Taylor said although "it's been a number of years" since the province added to the tourism network of parks, "we have a really good amount of assets as far as parks are concerned." 

North Lake has 37 limited service campsites, with plans to expand that number to 45, and a sandy beach for swimming. Each campsite has a picnic table, space for tenting, fire ring and access to potable water and dry toilets.

Although the provincial park is new, the area has been in use for a number of years. Partners for Youth, an organization that provides programs for at-risk youth, has held camps in the area, according to John Sharpe, executive director of the organization.   

"We had a ministerial agreement on the site, and we signed that ministerial agreement in approximately 2006. And it was for a 25-year term, renewable for two additional terms," Sharpe said. 

He added that close to two years ago, the Department of Natural Resources had requested a portion of the park back.

"We certainly were understanding and wanted to to do our best to accommodate, " he said. 

The request was then expanded to ask for the entire park, and Sharpe said they were able to work that out.

"It came with the provision that they would provide us a different site to to run our programs," said Sharpe, noting that Partners for Youth agreed to operate on a nearby piece of land which is still very close to the lake.

"North Lake is uniquely positioned on the St. Croix international waterway and provides access to just a variety of lakes and rivers in that area," said Sharpe.

"That's great for outdoor tripping with kids, and certainly makes it a lot easier to do the kind of work that we do."