Companies planning to build projects such as pipelines and transmission lines stand to receive permits to conduct exploratory research in B.C. parks, according to proposed new legislation introduced Thursday.

Bill 4, the Park Amendment Act, 2014, would allow investigative-use permits to be issued for studies, including for vegetation sampling, fish surveys and low-impact geotechnical studies. Based on the results of the studies, companies would then have to apply for a boundary adjustment if they wanted to proceed with a project through a park.

Environment Minister Mary Polak said in an interview that the legislation provides clarity, ensuring the province has the legal authority to issue permits for research, as well as activities such as recreation, tourism, and commercial filming in parks.

Information gained from these preliminary investigations will be helpful to companies as well as the government later in determining the merits of a boundary adjustment. In some cases, the companies might reject the idea of an adjustment and chose a different route, she said. “It has some potentially positive benefits. It’s really valuable information.”

Polak noted that not all permit applications will be from companies seeking industrial projects.

The Kitselas First Nation near Terrace is seeking an amendment to 269-hectare Kleanza Creek Provincial Park to allow for access to drinking water. Access roads are another potential rationale for a park boundary amendment.

She noted that allowing a small land removal from a park might result in less environmental damage than if a company had to seek an alternative route.

Polak noted she will personally decide if an investigative-use permit will be issued for a given park. “They’d have to lay out specifically what they intend to do. And then we’d examine what kind of impact potentially that could have on the park.”

The government is not limiting the purposes for which an investigative permit may be requested.

In response, NDP environment critic Spencer Chandra Herbert (Vancouver-West End) said his main concern is to ensure that the process is transparent and the public has the opportunity to comment.

“Will this make it easier for the government to run pipelines or transmission lines through a park when people are clearly opposed?” he added. “That’s the risk here, do you make it easier to cut up our parks?”

The Vancouver Sun reported last December that the Ministry of Environment is anticipating applications for boundary adjustments to at least 35 parks and other protected areas to accommodate industrial pipelines, transmission lines and resource roads.

The proposed boundary adjustments — which would amount to new or enlarged industrial corridors slicing through protected areas — were contained within a four-page ministry document dated May 17, 2013 and released through a freedom-of-information request.

According to the document, Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from Alberta to Burnaby could potentially require boundary adjustments to 10 provincial parks, ranging in size from 8.5-hectare F.H. Barber and 32-hectare Bridal Veil Falls, both between Chilliwack and Hope, to large protected areas such as 615-hectare Jackman Flats near Valemount and 15,000-hectare Lac du Bois Grasslands near Kamloops.