There was a series of government press events today to announce where new campsites will be built in BC Parks and BC Recreation Sites.

Unfortunately, there were some fairly questionable elements to the announcements including the inclusion of campsites that were built in a previous year under a different funding program, $200,000 missing from the BC Parks license plate program, and sneaky product placement from a corporate sponsor. I’d like responses to the four requests that are posted below.

1) Some good news but a serious lack of transparency

It’s good news that new campsites are being built but I want to exercise restraint in my congratulations. The reality is that years of underfunding combined with years of growing demand. This has resulted in a critical lack of supply that hurts the tourism industry and local visitors and will take a number of years to resolve. There was a growth of 2.4 million additional park visits from the ‘14/’15 to ‘15/’16 season alone. That is the only performance metric which has been released. Surprisingly, the government has not yet published the 2015/2016 BC Parks annual report which covers the season that ended in March of 2016.

Request 1:

I request that the government commit to releasing the 2015/2016 BC Parks Annual report within one year of the end of the 2015/2016 season? (by the end of next week!) No organization in the private sector would ever be allowed to delay the release of an annual report by over a year and the timing in an election year is even more important.

2) The time machine

Re-announcements of funding are offensive to the taxpayer since each announcement costs the taxpayer money. Each time the funding is re-announced there are custom signs designed and printed and a government photographer and other staff are in attendance. When a flurry of re-announcements is made immediately before the election, it also looks like a misappropriation of tax payer dollars for the purpose of promoting MLAs that are running for re-election. Today’s event initially looked like it was one of these expensive re-announcements since the funding had already been announced with an event in November and again in February.

However, the announcement turned out to be worse than that because it contained an important mis-truth. The government press release stated the following:

“Visitors will soon have more camping opportunities in the Squamish area with the completion of 52 new campsites in the Sea-to-Sky corridor, in time for the upcoming 2017 camping season. The 52 new campsites are located at: Chek Canyon Recreation Site — 32 sites Garibaldi Provincial Park — 20 backcountry sites The new campsites are among the first phase of the 1,900 new campsites announced by Premier Christy Clark in November 2016 as part of the BC Parks Future Strategy”

The reality is that the 20 backcountry sites in Garibaldi Park were funded out of the BC Parks capital budget from a previous year and were built last summer. In fact, visitors were camping on these tent pads before the BC Parks Future Strategy or new funding allocation was even announced. After the BC Parks Future Strategy was announced, there were some criticisms that it did not include a commitment to new backcountry sites above and beyond what was in existence at the end of 2016. The government appears to be trying to re-write history by suggesting that those old existing sites are actually part of a new set of campsites.

I contacted the Ministry of Environment and they confirmed that the sites are at Helm Creek. You can look at this website archive on September 3rd 2016 when it showed 9 sites at Helm Creek and on November 15th 2016 when it had been updated to reflect the summer/fall addition of the 20 sites. The BC Parks Future Strategy was not released until November 28th 2016.

Sep 3rd, 2016:

Nov 15th, 2016:

Request 2:

I request that the government edit the press release to state that the 20 backcountry sites in Garibaldi Park were included as an error OR to provide confirmation that there will be 20 NEW backcountry sites added to Garibaldi Park this spring. (My understanding is that there will be no new additions to Helm Creek.)

3) $200,000 of missing funds from ICBC customers

One of the pillars of the BC Parks Future Strategy is that instead of relying solely on general revenue and revenue generated by park users to fund the system, BC Parks will increasingly rely on private and corporate donations. One of the first major forays into this new strategy was a vanity license plate program where people can buy a BC Parks branded license plate for $50 with an annual renewal fee of $40.

When the program was announced, it was stated by ICBC and the government in no uncertain terms that $33 of every plate sold would be given to BC Parks (with $40 going to BC Parks in subsequent years.) It was on that basis that people bought the plates.

The announcement today included a progress update:

“To date, more than 11,000 BC Parks licence plates have been sold since the plates became available for purchase at Autoplan broker offices on Jan. 29, 2017. The Province introduced this series of specialty licence plates — featuring images of a Kermode bear found only in British Columbia, the snowcapped Purcell Mountains, and a stunning view from Porteau Cove overlooking Howe Sound — in partnership with the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC). Approximately $165,000 will go toward the Park Enhancement Fund as a result of the plate sales.”

Wait a second… 11,000*$33 = $363,000 which means that $198,000 went missing! That’s $198,000 that the people of BC thought they were donating to the BC Parks system.

Request 3:

I request that BC Parks and ICBC immediately explain the accounting for the program and the $198,000 discrepancy or halt the program until an audit is performed.

4) This press event brought to you by Coleman

Flash back to September 2016 when it was revealed that for the bargain-basement price of $4500, Coleman had negotiated a sponsorship with the BC Parks system which gave them very prominent advertising space on the BC Parks website. Those ads are still running today. We do not know the full extent of the sponsorship arrangement between Coleman and BC Parks.

I have a number of concerns with the park system accepting this kind of money. For starters, parks are one of the few remaining corners of the world where we can get away from advertising and we significantly devalue the experience by allowing ads. Secondly, we rely on the park system to make unbiased park management decisions. When the budget for the parks starts to come from corporations, it is obvious that those corporations will start to be able to influence park spending and management decisions.

One of the worrying pillars of the BC Parks Future Strategy is an increasing reliance on corporate sponsorship that would extend beyond the website and include corporate sponsorship inside the parks themselves. Today’s press event may be an early hint. It would have made sense to make a park announcement in a park. Instead, the announcement was made in a retail store with a huge row of Coleman coolers placed directly behind the Minister. There was no acknowledgement in the announcement that Coleman was a sponsor which makes this tactic particularly sneaky and concerning. Is the government now selling product placements at press events without disclosing that to the viewers?

Official Government Photo from the Press Event

Request 4:

I request that the government clarify the full extent of the sponsorship from Coleman and refrain from featuring corporate sponsors in future official BC Parks announcements.

Happy Hiking,

Cheers,

Steve

stevejoneshikes@gmail.com