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Get rid of the park fees
by Royal City Record Editorial •
Thursday April 20, 2006 at 03:59 PM
B.C. should follow an example set by our southern neighbours.
Washington State is axing its parking fees in state parks. Washington had introduced the unpopular parking fees in 2003.
Royal City Record
New Westminster BC Editorial Get rid of the park fees We don't say it very often, but when we do, we mean it. B.C. should follow an example set by our southern neighbours. Washington State is axing its parking fees in state parks. Washington had introduced the unpopular parking fees in 2003. Critics said the fees resulted in missed revenue targets and the loss of more than seven million visitors in the three years the parking meters were in effect. In 2003, the B.C. government introduced parking meters in 28 parks in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. The policy was later expanded to include 13 parks in the Interior in 2004. According to the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, the fees drove away more than one million park visitors in the Lower Mainland the first year they were introduced. There were also problems with theft, vandalism and, of course, gathering the money from the meters. And then there is the obvious argument that parks are meant to be as open to folks as possible. Clamping fees on folks for communing with nature is simply wrongheaded. Despite the obvious failure of the fee policy, B.C. has continued to support the fees. This spring, parks officials were supposed to review the whole parking meter program. We hope that review is released very soon. It seems ironic that, at this time of the year, when government media departments have already started to 'sell' park usage, the government is still pondering the fee policy.
www.royalcityrecord.com/issues06/043206/opinion/043206op1.html
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