The Ministry of Environment will introduce an inflation-based increase to camping fees in most provincial parks on April 1 for the 2008 camping season. Camping fees will increase by $1 per night for rustic and basic sites, and by $2 per night for moderate and developed sites. Backcountry and parking fees will not change.

BC Parks camping fees remain competitive with those of Alberta, Ontario, Washington State, Oregon and Parks Canada.

Fee revenues will be reinvested in the BC Parks system to maintain and repair facilities, and to improve services. Many improvements have already taken place in provincial parks in recent years, including:
rebuilding day-use areas and campgrounds, upgrading drinking water systems, replacing shower and toilet buildings, and improving trails and roads. In fact, over the past three years, the B.C. government has made a capital investment of more than $65 million to improve park facilities and acquire new lands.

This is the first increase in camping fees since 2003 and it matches the general rate of inflation, which has gone up about two per cent per year over the past five years.

In addition, the cost of operating campgrounds in B.C.'s provincial parks has increased about 20 per cent since 2003 as a result of higher labour and fuel costs, and the need to upgrade many campground water
systems to meet current provincial drinking water standards.

Since 2001, the provincial government has established 46 new parks, 65 conservancies, one ecological reserve and eight protected areas, and expanded almost 50 parks and six ecological reserves, protecting more than 800,000 hectares. Today, almost 14 per cent (or more than 13 million hectares) of British Columbia land is protected - more than any other province in Canada.

To learn more about the BC Parks system, visit www.bcparks.ca.