National park visits rise 12% this year

OTTAWA — The federal government will consider what to do with admission fees for national parks beyond Canada’s 150th birthday after this year’s free parks program has proven to be exceptionally popular.

After Ottawa decided to eliminate fees for national parks and historic sites for all of 2017, Parks Canada says preliminary estimates show more than 14 million visits between January 1 and July 31.

That’s an increase of 1.5 million over the same period in 2016, or a 12 per cent jump.

The numbers are for 39 national parks and 82 national historic sites which report attendance numbers. Some parks and sites are currently closed, are brand new or do not report visitor statistics.

While parks attendance has been rising in recent years, the spike this year was double what was seen during the same period the year before, and business owners near some of the parks say the free admission is behind it.

“When I talk to a lot of the customers, they’re down here for the Canada 150 celebrations,” said Mike Makhlouf, co-owner of Freddy’s restaurant near Point Pelee National Park in southwestern Ontario.

Point Pelee, billed as the southernmost point of Canada and a birdwatcher’s paradise, saw the biggest absolute increase in visitors this year, with 130,000 more people passing through the gates. To the end of July, visitors to the park were up 66 per cent.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said she is thrilled with the visitor numbers so far, and believes when the year is over the government needs to take a look at what the impact was on the local communities and what should be done with the admission fees going forward.

“I think it’s a good time to take a step back and actually look at the broader economic case for national parks and historic sites, but certainly no decision has been made to extend it,” she told The Canadian Press in an interview.

The government already planned to eliminate admission fees for anyone under 18 after this year.