James Holder

Review of Parks Canada

This one star review is to draw attention to an is...

This one star review is to draw attention to an issue with their backcountry reservation system.

Many backcountry campsites in Jasper you need to reserve 6 months+ in advance, so naturally a lot of people's plans change in that time, and they can't show up. Since these are high-demand sites, the "right" thing to do is to cancel your reservation so that someone else can use it. Unfortunately, Parks Canada charges an $11 "cancellation fee" to cancel, in additional to forfeiting your "$12 reservation fee" (which is on top of the site fees). This fee is actually more than the $9.80 it costs for a single night booking, so in theory it would cost you more money to cancel a 1 night booking than to just not show up.

This leads to a lot of people not being able to take trips that they would otherwise have the opportunity to. When I did Jasper's Skyline Trail on a Long Weekend, I was the ONLY person at one of the sites I stayed at, even though the site was booked out. I was annoyed that 7 other groups hadn't made cancellations to open the sites for others, but now I understand that it is a Parks Canada policy that is at least partially to blame.

Considering that you lose your $12 "reservation fee" regardless, there is no need for an additional $11 cancellation fee.

Another good policy change would be to have some sort of "check-in" system a week or a month in advance, because I bet some people just forget.

So remember, if you can't get your back-country reservation, remember that it isn't necessarily high demand that is getting in the way - it may just be good old fashioned mismanagement.