Prepare to Become Very, Very Depressed With The Experience Of Camping and RVing in Alberta, British Columbia or Most Anywhere else in Canada. Capitalism has Once Again Been Allowed to Rear its Ugly Head.

Reserving a campsite in a B.C. park has gotten so competitive; it’s resulted in campers scalping their unused reservations for up to 10 times their value.

Bottom line, no Canadian, no human life form capable of rational thought, can, or could possibly; still believe that what has become known as "Camping" remains a sensible, feasible, even affordable holiday/vacation option. Operating costs of a (even the smallest sizes) solely/dedicated Recreation Vehicle Site costs--figure it all out for yourself. 

The BC Parks camp reservation system was overloaded with campers hoping to snag their little slice of outdoor paradise when reservations for the summer opened in March. Despite new fee increases, the website had three times the traffic volume as it did in 2015.

BC boasts a huge variety of camping facilities: seven national parks, approximately 900 provincial parks and protected areas, more than 1,200 recreation sites, most of which are rapidly becoming ( presumably legally or blatantly illegally, but still with  political government consent) privatised campgrounds and RV parks. Many campsites are accessible by car or RV (recreational vehicle); others provide a “Rustic”-- reserved solely for the specially entitled capitalist elite-- wilderness experience.

Reality: “Hot” ==money op-- demand has spurred creative ways to guarantee the elusive camp reservation. Savvy??? Campers???will book a big block of time ahead of a long weekend without the intention of using the site for the entire period.

·         They then scalp their remaining days at up to 10 times what they bought them for, to any camper who rolls through without a reservation.

·         In the summer at some of the busiest sites, it’s a marvel. You’ve got this line up of campers and boats and trailers, people just moving their whole family out to spend a weekend in a British Columbia park, and they’re getting turned around. The nearest site that might have availability might be an hour drive away, so they’re willing to pay the premium.

With the scalped camping passes, people are spending $100, $200, $300 a night for any site Not at legitimate, entrepreneur owned and duly licensed, business for profit; sites; but at publicly owned, by Canadian citizen/taxpayers park reserves.

As of the beginning of last month, June, there were many, many, personally funded/privately, entrepreneur owned, non-franchise, luxury resorts renting two bedroom fully furnished and equipped ( including cooking utensils, dishes, linen for $200.00 a night; some for much less.

Although they would never pay that in advance don’t worry, government politicians are very much aware and are capitalising), but when you have everyone there and you have no other options, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.

In the summer at some of the busiest sites, it’s a marvel. You’ve got this line up of campers and boats and trailers, people just moving their whole family out to spend a weekend in a British Columbian park, and they’re getting turned around. The nearest site that might have availability might be an hour drive away, so they’re willing to pay the premium

·         British Columbia’s Discover Camping reservation system shuts out hopeful campers; Website ' just not available' too many hoping to reserve a British Columbia Parks camping spot.

Important News and Updates:

·         June 16, 2016Hwy 97 is closed between Mackenzie Junction and Chetwynd.

·         May 19, 2016 South Okanagan Consultation Summary Report Released

·         May 11, 2016 New for 2016: Garibaldi Park accepting reservations

·         April 26, 2016 Date change for Berg Lake Trail and Bowron Lake Canoe circuit reservations

·         March 24, 2016 Minister Polak introduces amendments to the Protected Areas of British Columbia Act

Reminder: February 12, 2016 New Recreation User Fee Schedule. Frontcountry Reservations open March 15th at 7am. At $35 per night (plus additional charge for anything and everything else you may want, or require, to help ensure ANY enjoyment in being there), Goldstream Provincial Park near Victoria is among the most expensive camping spots.

·         Fees at about half of the parks have gone up by a couple of dollars again this year, following increases of up to $5 dollars per night at some parks last year. The cost of some group campsites in 2016 will also hit $120, compared with $100 last year.

The History Behind Canada's National, Provincial, Rural, and Urban Parks.

January 20, 2011: Last year marked the 125th anniversary of Banff,

Canada’s first national park, and 2011 happens to be the centennial of Canada’s National Park service. These anniversaries have occasioned some celebrations; however, we ought not to forget to take a critical look at parks too.

To start, we might ask ourselves why; why, these anniversaries are taking place now: why was 2010 the 125th anniversary of our first national park; and not, say, the anniversary?  Why is it the 100th anniversary of the national parks service and not the 200th?  These questions may seem silly, but the answers to them probably are not what you would expect. Contrary to popular belief, the reason parks to preserve wilderness started to be established in Canada (and elsewhere) toward the end of the 19th century was not because humans suddenly wised up to the importance of preserving nature or some new found romanticism. Human perspectives toward wilderness and nature have always been as varied throughout recorded history as they are today.

At any period, there have been those who have looked to nature and wildlife with awe and reverence, and sought to leave sites of natural beauty untouched. Take for example some of Civilization’s oldest literature, the Homeric hymns of Ancient Greece:

    “firs or towering oaks grow upon the fruitful earth

    beautiful, flourishing on the lofty mountains.

    They stand high, and people call them

    sacred groves of the immortals,

    And Mortals Do Not Cut Them Down At All With An Axe.”

On The Other Hand, There Have Always Been Those Who Seem Immune To Nature’s Charms, and display no interest in preserving wild landscapes. Keeping Our 2,700-Year-Old Poem In Mind, Our Urge To Preserve Nature Is As Old As Civilization. But this brings us back to our question: if the desire to preserve wilderness and nature is an ancient one, why is Canada’s first national park barely more than a century old (just to clear things up, it’s not because of the timing of Confederation, since we inherited many institutions from colonial authorities, such as universities that predate 1867.)?

Rather, the short answer is; that it was only at that time that the wilderness started to rapidly disappear, due to grossly excessive over population—human over population; of most all truly inhabitable arable, regions of Nature’s world. For tens of thousands of years, human beings were spread quite sparsely over the earth, never numbering much more than a few hundred million. That all changed with the Industrial Revolution. The human bean population suddenly started to multiply at an unprecedented rate, hitting one billion, by the start of the nineteenth century. Though it took over 100,000 years for humans to reach our first billion, it required only another hundred years for the human population to double to TWO BILLION. By that point in the late nineteenth century, the phenomenal growth by humans had devoured a lot of what had been wild land and pushed other species to extinction.

Rather, the short answer is that it was only at that time that the wilderness started to rapidly disappear. For tens of thousands of years, human beings were spread quite sparsely over the earth, never numbering much more than a few hundred million. That all changed with the Industrial Revolution. The human population suddenly started to multiply at an unprecedented rate, hitting one billion by the start of the nineteenth century. Though it took over 100,000 years for humans to reach our first billion, it required only another hundred years for the human population to double to two billion. By that point in the late nineteenth century, the phenomenal growth by humans had devoured a lot of what had been wild land and pushed other species to extinction.~~Al (Alex-Alexander) D Girvan.