If you Googled “John Dean Provincial Park” on Monday, you might have noticed something odd—it was listed as a “State park in British Columbia.”
And it wasn’t just that one. Every single one of BC’s 1,033 provincial parks was mistakenly labelled as a state park.
Naturally, British Columbians weren’t thrilled. Social media blew up as people pointed out the error, questioning how such a fundamental mistake could go unnoticed for so long. After all, Canada has provinces, not states.
The good news? BC Parks acted fast. By Wednesday afternoon, the Ministry of Environment and Parks confirmed that Google was working to correct the issue.
Related: Here’s why Google referred to BC provincial parks as state parks
“Thanks to the quick work by our BC Parks team with Google Canada, ‘provincial park’ is now a category in their business listings,” the ministry said in a statement. “We are now working to update each listing.”
BC’s provincial parks cover 14 million hectares—roughly 14.4% of the province’s land. With around 23 million visitors annually, the need for accurate information is obvious.
As it turns out, the error had likely been there for a while, but it only started gaining widespread attention this week. Some speculated that it was connected to rising tensions between Canada and the US, particularly after former US President Donald Trump’s repeated 51st state rhetoric and recent tariff threats.
In a White House transcript from Wednesday, February 26th, Trump announced new tariffs on all Canadian goods, set to take effect on April 2nd. “I was going to do it on April 1st, but I’m a little bit superstitious, so I made it April 2nd,” he remarked vaguely.
While the park mislabelling likely wasn’t intentional, the timing fueled speculation. Google Canada, however, has denied that any recent changes were made to the way parks are labelled.
“We are actively working to update the labels to avoid confusion,” a Google spokesperson said, explaining that the issue stemmed from backend systems defaulting to ‘state park.’
BC Environment Minister Tamara Davidson acknowledged public frustration and emphasized the importance of correctly identifying BC’s protected areas.
“We understand the concerns raised by the incorrect designation in the context of current tensions,” she said. “Let’s be clear—we will never be the 51st state.”
BC Parks confirmed to Victoria Buzz that they contacted Google Canada directly to request a “provincial park” designation. They also reassured the public that the error wasn’t new—Google’s system had simply defaulted to “state park” for years.
With the issue now being fixed, British Columbians can breathe a little easier knowing that their beloved provincial parks are being properly recognized. And while Google may have global influence, when it comes to BC’s outdoor spaces, we’ll stick with provincial, thanks very much.
