Over the course of its history, the predecessor "National Parks Act" struggled to define the primary intention of national parks by trying to balance parks as places both of conservation and public leisure. Remarks made by the Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change in 2018 signalled a renewed commitment by the Parks Canada agency to ecological conservation within national parks. Early legislation in Canada applied exclusionary policies and forcibly removed Indigenous peoples off lands in order to create national parks. With developments in the legal recognition of Aboriginal title and rights in Canada, provisions have been included within the "National Parks Act" to extend the right of traditional harvesting activities within national park reserves with some cases altering park management to be shared between the Parks Canada agency and local Indigenous groups.