Foreigners, unscrupulous agents not to blame for B.C. campsite shortage

Wealthy foreigners pushing out locals, unscrupulous agents skirting the rules, wholesale buyers sucking up all the vacancies in a red hot market.

You could be forgiven for thinking it's another round of complaints about Metro Vancouver's housing crunch.

But these are actually some of the stories circulating about the crisis in the provincial park campsite reservation system.

However, according to B.C.'s Environment Minister Mary Polak, the complaints are simply overblown, misleading or completely untrue.

"There is so much mythology developing around this," said Polak, responding to a round of critical stories in the media in recent weeks.

She notes B.C. residents still book 75 per cent of campsites each year, with Albertans a distant second with about 15 per cent of bookings.

Meanwhile, all those hordes of wealthy foreigners spoiling the local kids marshmallow roast? They account for only one percent of bookings, said Polak.

"We could ban all tour companies from booking in the campsites, and it wouldn't even make a dent in the challenge. There are just so few of them."

Ban on commercial operators not considered

Polak notes most of the campsites booked by agents for clients' RV packages are on weekdays anyway, when demand from B.C. residents tends to fall off.

Even if they do get a coveted long-weekend booking, they can't be transferred or resold to anyone who comes along.

"We do not allow them to book a bunch of spots and put them up for sale to who ever wants them. That is not allowed."

"If we find that they are reselling, we can cancel those reservations and ban them from operating — and we do."

The commercial tour operators provide a legitimate service just like a travel agent, says Polak, and in a province like B.C. where many small towns depend on the annual influx of tourists to boost the economy, cracking down on tourism is not on the government's agenda.

"When people do come to camp, especially in small communities, they are not just camping. They are usually doing a lot of other things in the communities," said Polak.

And she notes it's not just foreigners making use of the packaged services, which often include an RV, campsite bookings and activities.

"There are people from the downtown core who don't have an RV. For them it is a convenient way to take that holiday that they otherwise would not be able too."

Scalpers easily shut down

But it is not just foreigners who are getting blamed for gaming the system, according to critics.

Some cunning campers have found a way to book popular weekends up to two weeks before others by making a lengthy reservation that ends with a long weekend. Later they cancel the first part of the trip, leaving them with a long weekend reservation that was booked before others had access.

Polak says the data shows only a very small number of people are actually working the system this way, but the province is looking for a way to end it.

Previously the province banned changes within two weeks of booking to stop people from rolling large bookings forward day by day, she notes.

"We are looking at the data to see what we can do about it. You do want families to be able to change their reservation if their circumstances changes," she said.

The ministry says all options are being considered to fix the problems, but many suggestions, like a lottery system, are just not suitable when the system needs to accommodate such a wide range of demands.

And as for reports about online scalping, most of the time it turns out to be someone who had to cancel their vacation and did not realize they could not resell their reservation, she notes.

"We've only had 11 instances of it this year. That is typical. When we see it, we take action. We cancel reservations."

Demand outstrips supply

According to Polak the real problem is "an incredible demand for a very small resource." 

"We have fewer than 6,000 campsites to reserve and of course we have a province of more than four million people."

She notes long gone are the days when parents want to throw the kids in the car and head out on the road without anything booked.

"These days, people want the certainty of a reservation," she said.

As for just building more campsites? Not so easy she says.

"In many popular campsites there is just no more land to build other campsites," she noted.

"In other cases you have parks where people want to be able camp, but they are not that excited about us cutting down some of the trees or taking away some of the wilderness values too."

So, much like B.C.'s red hot housing market, it seems that finding the solution to B.C.'s campsite crisis will take more than pointing fingers at foreigners.