B.C. Parks fee increase
BC Parks just recently increased their fees. While i suppose it's something that was overdue (it's been 5 years), i find it funny that they claim they have to do this due to an increase in users!! A d...
Forum Discussion
Isn't it wonderful how we are all so different in our thought patterns, and how we all interpret or perceive things differently, and how much we can learn from looking at things from so many different angles that others share?
We actually bid several years ago on a local PP we had a true love for having camped there for many years prior. It was to run for a 5 year period, and with full knowledge from the folks that had run it for the previous 15 years (3 x 5yrs) whom we knew very well and did an awesome job. They shared what costs and profits were being made and believe me it was a good chunk of change, which we felt we could have reinvested a portion of, tweaked a few systems, added a few extra $'s generating certain supplies, activities, and benefited the park for the people further whilst at the same time making a decent living doing something we had a true passion for. Being farming family backgrounds we are used to hard work and very long days, so no underestimation there of what would be needed effectively and to benefit a win-win.
It was about hour and half from Calgary (million pop approx) in the middle of the prairies with a lake - kind of a little oasis in the dessert. No hook ups, issues with septic dump station area, we'd need to address and so on but still this older couple were making very good income, travelled south for 5 months in winter and they maintained it wonderfully.
I have no problem whatsoever with the paying "a little more" "IF" it's to the benefit of the people and the tax payers that are already paying towards it indirectly, but it rarely ever is, and the amount of our wasted dollars is an absolute sin. Besides which what they say are their reasons for increasing fees rarely gets applied to that at the end, but gets diverted elsewhere has been most experience.
As it turns out, looking back, we aren't sorry we lost out personally but like untold others we were very appalled that at least one of the other local Albertan residents bidding didn't get it for sure, being familiar with the area, what would benefit it, and who would spend most of their profits back into the local communities most likely. It was awarded to an out of province company that runs several other campgrounds in their domicile province, and was definitely a situation of who you know not what you know. Have no problems with anyone making a "fair" income to operate successfully but we are talking about supposedly the lands of the people here that rightly or wrongly we feel are starting to be exploited for large corporate gains.
Bottom line is since then we've seen the prices go up exponentially (not at the same rate as inflation!), and more sites added to accommodate higher demand (right now!) for more profit.
Knowing how the figures work out behind the scenes to a large degree at park level, number of staff employed and salaries, it's not about what's best for the people and future generations of the lands whom pay the taxes and accommodating them, it feels to us that it's all about how much more money can we bleed out of folks.
Consider Kananaski's Country, it's supposedly PULZ (Public Lands) yet there's no random motorized style camping allowed even if you are the general rule of 1km away from a CG, nope you have to pay the $33 to just park on a piece of gravel in their MacLean Creek overflow area, and they will for sure make room for you at that rate! There's tons of suitable pullouts and places that would accommodate random camping, so that seems very unfair don't you think? USFS and BLM manages to allow it why don't we? $$$$$'s. Sure there are other public lands in way out places, but we have lost public access to more and more for random camping over recent years as they see another way to make yet more money at the expense of the people's enjoyment.
All the creative accounting in the world which we can all do in any situation to show positive cashflows versus deficits, depending what we are trying to achieve, and their reasonings for hiking rates doesn't bode well with the locals that have done the appropriate research and realized where much wasted dollars are going.
As someone else mentioned above they don't have to pay for the land, or property taxes, and due to size can bid lower rates on ancillary services, so how come the private CG owner that has to pay all those extra escalating costs can now more than compete on price we are seeing today and still survive with a small percentage the number of sites? I'm just struggling to get my head around it all no matter what figures or stats they throw at us.
Bottom line is it's all down to the governments and what they decide we have to abide with or do without. Rightly or wrongly it just feels to us minions that, they just want to increase their salaries at the upper end to ridiculous figures, yet not gain a true handle on operating more efficiently, as I said before by implementing more accountability at local level through to various tiers upwards by encouraging better systems, processes and procedures.
When it comes to governments or public bodies it's always their decisions in one form or another and the little guy on the street has no say, all we can do is pay our money and let the government make our choices.
Would we make different assessments and assumptions if we were the fat cats at the top making these decisions which really wouldn't have much impact on our enjoyments at that salary level? As my father always said "words are cheap, actions speak louder than words".
I can't help it, but all I can visualize in all of this is the single mother with two children, working a regular job, trying to keep a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs and food in their stomachs, whilst trying to scrape together enough money to afford a family weekend fun camp a couple of times in the summer, to create childhood memories, and miles of smiles that seemed to be a given way of life a couple or so decades ago in our National and Provincial Parks. We'd lend her our RV to help out but she wouldn't be able to afford the CG's fees to do it, when it costs her more for the night to camp in the wilderness than she pays rent per night for her all inclusive of utilities apartment.
We all have 'x' amount of dollars to spend and will do so, it just makes a difference who's pockets and what country we will put it in at the end of the day.
As always, this is just my probably totally wrong 2cents, which with inflation probably is not even worth a halfpenny today (LOL).
We actually bid several years ago on a local PP we had a true love for having camped there for many years prior. It was to run for a 5 year period, and with full knowledge from the folks that had run it for the previous 15 years (3 x 5yrs) whom we knew very well and did an awesome job. They shared what costs and profits were being made and believe me it was a good chunk of change, which we felt we could have reinvested a portion of, tweaked a few systems, added a few extra $'s generating certain supplies, activities, and benefited the park for the people further whilst at the same time making a decent living doing something we had a true passion for. Being farming family backgrounds we are used to hard work and very long days, so no underestimation there of what would be needed effectively and to benefit a win-win.
It was about hour and half from Calgary (million pop approx) in the middle of the prairies with a lake - kind of a little oasis in the dessert. No hook ups, issues with septic dump station area, we'd need to address and so on but still this older couple were making very good income, travelled south for 5 months in winter and they maintained it wonderfully.
I have no problem whatsoever with the paying "a little more" "IF" it's to the benefit of the people and the tax payers that are already paying towards it indirectly, but it rarely ever is, and the amount of our wasted dollars is an absolute sin. Besides which what they say are their reasons for increasing fees rarely gets applied to that at the end, but gets diverted elsewhere has been most experience.
As it turns out, looking back, we aren't sorry we lost out personally but like untold others we were very appalled that at least one of the other local Albertan residents bidding didn't get it for sure, being familiar with the area, what would benefit it, and who would spend most of their profits back into the local communities most likely. It was awarded to an out of province company that runs several other campgrounds in their domicile province, and was definitely a situation of who you know not what you know. Have no problems with anyone making a "fair" income to operate successfully but we are talking about supposedly the lands of the people here that rightly or wrongly we feel are starting to be exploited for large corporate gains.
Bottom line is since then we've seen the prices go up exponentially (not at the same rate as inflation!), and more sites added to accommodate higher demand (right now!) for more profit.
Knowing how the figures work out behind the scenes to a large degree at park level, number of staff employed and salaries, it's not about what's best for the people and future generations of the lands whom pay the taxes and accommodating them, it feels to us that it's all about how much more money can we bleed out of folks.
Consider Kananaski's Country, it's supposedly PULZ (Public Lands) yet there's no random motorized style camping allowed even if you are the general rule of 1km away from a CG, nope you have to pay the $33 to just park on a piece of gravel in their MacLean Creek overflow area, and they will for sure make room for you at that rate! There's tons of suitable pullouts and places that would accommodate random camping, so that seems very unfair don't you think? USFS and BLM manages to allow it why don't we? $$$$$'s. Sure there are other public lands in way out places, but we have lost public access to more and more for random camping over recent years as they see another way to make yet more money at the expense of the people's enjoyment.
All the creative accounting in the world which we can all do in any situation to show positive cashflows versus deficits, depending what we are trying to achieve, and their reasonings for hiking rates doesn't bode well with the locals that have done the appropriate research and realized where much wasted dollars are going.
As someone else mentioned above they don't have to pay for the land, or property taxes, and due to size can bid lower rates on ancillary services, so how come the private CG owner that has to pay all those extra escalating costs can now more than compete on price we are seeing today and still survive with a small percentage the number of sites? I'm just struggling to get my head around it all no matter what figures or stats they throw at us.
Bottom line is it's all down to the governments and what they decide we have to abide with or do without. Rightly or wrongly it just feels to us minions that, they just want to increase their salaries at the upper end to ridiculous figures, yet not gain a true handle on operating more efficiently, as I said before by implementing more accountability at local level through to various tiers upwards by encouraging better systems, processes and procedures.
When it comes to governments or public bodies it's always their decisions in one form or another and the little guy on the street has no say, all we can do is pay our money and let the government make our choices.
Would we make different assessments and assumptions if we were the fat cats at the top making these decisions which really wouldn't have much impact on our enjoyments at that salary level? As my father always said "words are cheap, actions speak louder than words".
I can't help it, but all I can visualize in all of this is the single mother with two children, working a regular job, trying to keep a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs and food in their stomachs, whilst trying to scrape together enough money to afford a family weekend fun camp a couple of times in the summer, to create childhood memories, and miles of smiles that seemed to be a given way of life a couple or so decades ago in our National and Provincial Parks. We'd lend her our RV to help out but she wouldn't be able to afford the CG's fees to do it, when it costs her more for the night to camp in the wilderness than she pays rent per night for her all inclusive of utilities apartment.
We all have 'x' amount of dollars to spend and will do so, it just makes a difference who's pockets and what country we will put it in at the end of the day.
As always, this is just my probably totally wrong 2cents, which with inflation probably is not even worth a halfpenny today (LOL).
