Millions of dollars have been set aside in the federal budget to arm national park wardens with handguns, according to an Alberta MP.

"They deal with all kinds of situations in the park, everything from poachers to people being in the backcountry," Myron Thompson, the MP from Wild Rose, north of Calgary, told CBC News on Friday. 

He said $12 million has been budgeted to arm the wardens, although an exact time frame has not been announced.

Thompson said wardens face too many dangers in vast, isolated parks not to be armed.

Wardens across the country were pulled from their enforcement duties in May, when a federal appeals officer ruled it was too risky for them to handle their responsibilities unarmed.

Since the ruling, the RCMP has temporarily taken over enforcement duties.

The May ruling came after Doug Martin, a warden at Banff National Park, filed a health and safety complaint in 2000 under Canada's Labour Code, arguing that the safety of wardens is threatened because they aren't equipped with guns.

Since then, there have been several court challenges on the issue, which has divided the 425 wardens who patrol Canada's national parks. Not all wardens want to carry guns.