Every summer we head to Elk Island National Park, north of Edmonton for a family golf tournament.  And every year we show up to the same northern gate to the national park and we use their automated machine to purchase a park day pass.

There’s a booth there, but I’ve never seen it manned, likely because it’s usually pretty quiet at that end of the park.
This year I drove up and the machine wasn’t working.

Being that my tee-time was in 30 minutes, I didn’t have time to drive to the far end of the park to check to see if the other automated machine there was working, so I headed to the golf course.

After my round I happened upon a park officer ticketing my vehicle. I explained that the machine wasn’t working at the gate, and he said that I needed to go to the campground office to purchase a pass.  I agreed that I would and he tore up my ticket.

As I was purchasing my day pass, I suggested to the friendly young woman at the campground office that it would be helpful if they put a sign on the machine explaining that passes could be purchased at the campground office, as I had no clue where to go to purchase a pass.

She said that they had gone and put an “out of order” sign on the machine…

“Well… it’s pretty clearly out of order, so what really would be helpful is a sign that told people where to go to get a pass…” I explained again.

She told me that because they were a national park all signs had to be bilingual, and they hadn’t yet got the sign explaining where to purchase passes translated and approved.

“You can’t just print a quick one up on your computer and then use google translate?” I asked.

“No. It has to be officially translated and approved.”

Because of the off chance someone who only speaks French might happen upon this northern Alberta national park, the 99.9% of the people who entered that gate yesterday were left clueless as to where to purchase a pass. And who knows how many tickets were issued to the uninformed.

When official bilingualism trumps common sense, we’re all doomed.