By Trevor Schwab
The Guardian
Faced with an alarming decrease in the numbers of visitors, Parks Canada has frozen entry fees for another year and says plans for operating the P.E.I. National Park will be business as usual in 2012.
The freeze on tolls and fees has been in effect since 2008, says Jewel Cunningham, P.E.I.’s field unit superintendent.
The freeze has been extended until 2014. The aim is to encourage more Canadians to visit parks and assist the tourism industry in this time of slow economy.
Entry fees account for only a portion of the revenue Parks Canada makes to keep parks operating, said Cunningham.
“A lot of revenue associated with P.E.I. national parks are associated with licensing and we also have business operations going on within our facilities as well.”
Some examples are golf courses and hotel operations, as well as gift shops and, to a lesser extent, donations, she said.
“Entry fees are a fairly small portion of revenue in this geographic location. We are fortunate in that the entry fee freeze won’t be felt as tremendously here as in other parks around the country.”
Fees for other programs, such as guided walks or tours, which have costs outside of entry fees, also help in generating revenue, she said.
“There’s a variety of ways we can help reduce the impact of the fee freeze. They would be scheduling maintenance and spreading costs out across multiple years.”
P.E.I. parks have been well maintained in recent years and recent upgrades were made to facilities as well, she said.
“We have been successful in receiving a lot of funding from Canada’s Economic Action Plan. We here on P.E.I. have been fortunate enough to receive enough funding for road upgrades and upgrades at Brackley Beach for instance.”
But she said there are no firm promises that everything will be the exact same as its always been.
“In terms of a net loss, it’s really reduced by a number of things. Although we’ve had some decrease in visitation, we’ve also had some pockets of increased visitation. We have been able to expand visitation to Green Gables with the cruise industry on the rise, for instance.”
About 450, 000 people visited P.E.I.’s national park in 2010, a decrease from the 700,000 people who attended in 2006.
But the way in which Parks Canada counts visitors has also changed.
Before 2008, anyone entering the park was counted, even if they were not using the park. Now, only actual park users are tabulated which would help account for some of the drop in numbers.
The P.E.I. National Park will celebrate its 75th year anniversary this year since opening in 1937, and will host various events in celebration throughout 2012.
