More yurts, no new fees coming as part of Manitoba parks upgrades

A plan to spend millions of dollars upgrading Manitoba provincial parks includes dozens of new yurts, cabins and camping spots to meet growing demand.

The Manitoba government announced a 10-year, $121-million plan to add modern washrooms, more campsites with electrical service and more amenities in popular areas such as the Mantario Trail.

"We are increasing accessibility, elevating comfort, and safeguarding the natural charm of our parks," said Natural Resources Minister Greg Nesbitt.

The plan calls for 45 to 50 new yurts, starting with Asessippi and Duck Mountain provincial parks. The wooden structures with electricity, lighting and furniture often get snapped up within minutes when the booking period opens each year.

A consultant's report last year suggested raising fees but Nesbitt said there are no immediate plans to do that.

"I think the public wants to see value for their money. And I think that we'll be looking at the fee structure moving forward, but for right now, we have no plans to increase fees at the present time," he said.

The consultant's report pointed out Manitoba's rate of $55 a night for a yurt is half as much as what the federal government charges in a national park.

Manitoba also plans to spend more than $100 million upgrading roads in and around the parks.

Erica Dyck's family rents a seasonal campsite near Emerson, Man., close to the Canada-U.S. border, every year.

She welcomes the new spending.

"I think any money that goes into any of our park systems, infrastructure, roads, or increasing the availability of campsites or yurts, is awesome because that's something that everybody in Manitoba seems to do," she said.

Andrew Fehr runs a seasonal campground near Grunthal in southeastern Manitoba. He called the annual scramble to book sites a "rat race" and said the additional amenities will be good for the camping community. 

"There is a high demand for cabins and yurts. I always get people calling, 'Hey, do you have any cabins?'" he said.

But Eric Reder of the Wilderness Committee says the way to meet demand for space is to create more parks.

"We can't just keep the same number of parks and keep hoping that we can get more and more people into these parks. We need to grow parks, we need more spaces, we need more activities to do in more parks," he said.

The announcement on Thursday didn't include much spending on back country infrastructure or trails, but the province says there's more to come.

"COVID has certainly heightened the public's demand for parks and trails and we will have a a strategy and announcement here in the next two weeks on that," Nesbitt said.