Provincial parks in Canada are
protected areas of land and/or water designated by one of the provincial governments to protect nature or historical sites and to support recreation, tourism and education. The first provincial park,
Queen Victoria Park in
Niagara Falls, opened in 1888. The largest is the
Polar Bear Provincial Park on
Hudson Bay. Although provincial parks in Canada are not the same as
national parks, their structures and purposes are very similar. The provincial and territorial parks systems generally have various park categories. Parks may be ecological reserves without facilities for use by the general public, day use parks or recreational parks that offer many services to visitors, often including
bicycle,
canoe, or
kayak rentals,
camping sites,
hiking trails and
beaches. In the province of
Quebec, the provincial parks are labelled "national parks" and are all
IUCN category II protected areas (like at the federal level, and as opposed to many provincial parks), and are managed by
Société des établissements de plein air du Québec. Many parks in the other provinces have the IUCN designation. On 24 February 2025,
Google said that it would change all parks labelled "
state parks" in
Canada to "provincial parks" on
Google Maps. This issue predated the Trump Administration but gained attention after Trump stated that he would like
Canada to become the 51st state. ==South Africa==