Unfair Park Fee Increases

The following is an important letter from a WCA Director that was sent to the Minister of Conservation

Dear Minister of Conservation:

The recent landslide victory of mayor Brian Bowman should serve as a warning to the provincial NDP party that the public is shifting to the right and will no longer tolerate the old style tax and spend habits that this current provincial government has sunk to. The central issue being presently raised by the media is the public’s outrage over the increase in PST, however, this current government’s high handed attitude towards cottagers in provincial parks is increasingly becoming another public policy disaster and promises to become an important election issue. Specifically, the recent huge increase in land rent and service fees to provincial park cottagers, and the schedule of further massive increases over the coming years, is entirely unjustified, offensive and possibly illegal as per The Provincial Parks Act.

As a provincial park cottager and former supporter of the provincial NDP (I helped campaign for one of your MLA’s) I strongly recommend that if this government has any hope whatsoever of regaining the confidence, trust and votes of thousands of cottagers in provincial parks it must immediately cancel any further scheduled increases in land rental and service fees and replace it with a much more reasonable and politically acceptable schedule of increases based on the annual Manitoba CPI, or the annual increases allowed by the Residential Tenancies Branch.

Contrary to the current opinion of this government that provincial park cottagers are all wealthy fat cats who can pay thousands of dollars in annual land rent and service fees from the spare change they find in the pockets of their tuxedos, the vast majority of provincial park cottagers are in fact middle income workers and pensioners, many of whom like me have supported this government in the past.

Thank you for your consideration of this very important issue.

Sincerely,

Randall Kinley