Parks Canada is commissioning a $50,000 study to identify new revenue sources to support its existing operations and enhance visitor experience in Canada’s national parks and historic sites.
The revenue-generating study comes at a time the Harper government has ordered all federal government departments to slash five to 10 per cent from their budgets.
Parks officials say they are looking at new ways to make more money rather than simply increasing current user fees, such as entrance fees and campground charges.
“This is an opportunity to identify where we can possibly have revenues come to us so that we can better do things we are tasked to do,” said Greg Danchuk, Parks Canada’s acting director of brand experience.
“If we can generate revenues, it will be easier to provide services.”
Parks Canada is paying a consulting firm between $25,000 and $50,000 to help identify alternative opportunities for generating net revenues, such as licensing, royalties, rentals or donations.
A request for submissions on MERX, the government tendering site, closes Monday (Jan. 9). The agency wants the study completed by the end of March so it can examine the recommendations over the course of the year.
The study aims to identify new sources of revenue from activities such as retail, concessions, internet activities, licensing and royalties, rentals, membership, or other public programs.
Parks is also seeking new sources of contributed revenue, such as donations, annual giving and fundraising, philanthropy, foundations and corporate donations.
“The purpose is to analyse Parks Canada’s potential to generate increased net revenue from sources that are currently under performing or are untapped and to leverage an appropriate return to taxpayers from government investment,” reads the study proposal.
Monica Andreeff, executive director of the Association for Mountain Parks Protection and Enjoyment (AMPPE), said Parks Canada should be very careful of adding any new fees.
“They are going to price themselves out of the market; people are already being turned off by the amounts of camping fees on top of gate fees,” she said.
“Their visitorship is already a challenge, but adding new fees, it’s a disincentive for visitors.”
Andreeff said Parks Canada should look at nationally-approved recreational activities, such as via ferrata at Mount Norquay, as a means of generating new revenues.
“They need to be innovative and consider what people want, rather than trying to figure out new ways to charge people more,” she said.
“If they just allowed current providers to move their product forward, that will help attract new visitors and can help generate new revenues.”
Andreeff said there are also lost revenues in that many people pass through the drive-through lane at the east park gate of Banff National Park without a park pass.
“They should find a way to enforce some of the rules they have already,” he said.
While it may consider new fees, Parks Canada officials say the study will not consider existing user fees for current services and facilities. User fees are frozen at 2008 levels until at least March 31, 2013.
Parks also says it also won’t consider charging people to drive through national parks.
“We’re not going to look at that at all,” said Danchuk.
While the study comes at a time the federal government has ordered all departments to cut their budgets, Danchuk said the timing of the revenue-generation study is a coincidence.
“We’ve been doing a number of ad hoc things on an informal basis over the years, things like rentals for weddings and meetings in some parks, but we don’t do it in a big way,” he said.
The revenue-generating study also comes at a time Parks is developing its own merchandise and clothing line to sell to park visitors in a bid to make more money and raise awareness.
The federal agency manages a network of 42 national parks, 167 national historic sites, as well as four national marine conservation areas. Banff attracted about 3.1 million tourists last year.
In 2010-2011, Banff’s base budget was $25.8 million, plus a supplementary budget of $14 million, highways budget of $5.2 million, for a total of $45 million.
