Public’s complaints spur total overhaul of campsite booking
B.C.’s environment minister says she’s still not ready to commit to building new provincial campgrounds as a response to chronic complaints that the most popular sites are almost instantly booked each year.
Mary Polak, the MLA for Langley, said she’s researching where new campgrounds could be added and at what cost, but isn’t sure if a detailed proposal would be ready for February’s provincial budget.
Instead, Polak announced Monday she had changed the rules for reserving park campsites for the 2017 season to address concerns about overbooking, website crashes and loopholes that allowed some people to abuse the system.
“There were issues that were very real in terms of fairness, so we have made some changes that we hope will address that,” she said.
“We’re still at the point where we are looking at what is possible … One of our big challenges we face is in the campsites that are the most popular, those are also the places where we have the most limited space.
“The last thing we want to do is add campsites to places where they are not going to serve a demand, and then all we’ve done is increase our costs. We’re still in a position of doing that analysis.”
The changes announced Monday eliminate the historically busy March 15 opening day for campsite reservations. The government will now use a rolling four-month window for reservations starting Jan. 2 in the hopes the online parks system won’t crash under overwhelming demand, as it has in previous years.
People will also no longer be able to resell or transfer their campsite reservations.
The changes also plug a reservation loophole that let campers willing to book a maximum 14-night stay reserve their site for days that weren’t yet available to the public. A camper could then cancel much of the original reservation, but keep the prime spots they secured for the later dates. Critics welcomed the changes. “It’s certainly a good start and addresses some of the issues people have raised,” NDP critic George Heyman said.
B.C. Green Leader Andrew Weaver agreed, but said the government should also create more parks spaces, something his party has promised to do.
Polak said her review of the campsites debunked some of the most cited complaints, such as the belief that companies book campsites for tourists in bulk before locals can get a spot.
“There were many complaints about block booking. Well, no one could block book. The technology did not allow them to block book,” she said. Companies don’t get early access to the reservation system either, she said.
As well, Polak said she rejected the idea of giving B.C. residents first shot at campsite reservations.
“We looked at that, but right now 75 per cent of the reservations are British Columbians,” she said. “And the largest non-resident group is from the rest of Canada, and Alberta.”
Five parks (Martha Creek, Mount Fernie, Porteau Cove, Loveland Bay and Ellison) will see their maximum stay reduced from 14 days to seven. Some people will be upset, Polak said, but it will free up 1,000 nights of additional campsites.
B.C. has 10,700 camp space sat 124 parks (55 per cent are reservable, 45 per cent are first-come, firstserve), and is adding a few existing spots into the reservation system, including at the campgrounds of Gold Creek and Alouette Lake at Golden Ears Provincial Park near Vancouver.