[4] The agency is charged with a dual role of preserving the ecological and historical integrity of the places entrusted to its management, while also making them available and accessible for public use and enjoyment.

[5] In July 1910, a party of the British Columbia Provincial Government Expedition led by the Chief Commissioner of Lands Price Ellison explored the region surrounding Crown Mountain on Vancouver Island for the purposes of setting aside land to establish British Columbia's first provincial park.

[4] On March 1, 1911, the executive council passed the Strathcona Park Act, which protected approximately 250,000 hectares (620,000 acres) of mountainous terrain from being sold, settled or otherwise occupied.

This was followed by the establishment of two mountaintop parks, Kokanee Glacier and Mount Assiniboine, with the support of the Alpine Club of Canada in 1922.

These early parks were established for recreational purposes, with the larger ones were intended to be developed as major tourist destinations.

In its four years, the NDP government had brought the size of the park system up to 4.5 million hectares.

First Nations had previously been largely excluded from deliberations of park development until the 1997 Supreme Court decision of Delgamuukw v British Columbia after which the provincial government began recognizing Aboriginal title.

The system encompasses 1,035 park units covering an area of about 14.1 million hectares (54,440 mi2)—about 14.4% of the entire province—with over 6,000 km (3,700 mi) of hiking trails and approximately 12,700 campsites.

[10] The smallest park unit is Ballingall Islets Ecological Reserve at just 0.2 hectares (0.49 acres).