With free admission, visits to national parks and historic sites jump this year
OTTAWA — The federal government will consider what to do with admission fees for national parks beyond Canada’s 150th birthday after this year’s free parks program has proven to be exceptionally popular.
After Ottawa decided to eliminate fees for national parks and historic sites for all of 2017, Parks Canada says preliminary estimates show more than 14 million visits between January 1 and July 31.
That’s an increase of 1.5 million over the same period in 2016, or a 12 per cent jump.
The numbers are for 39 national parks and 82 national historic sites which report attendance numbers. Some parks and sites are currently closed, are brand new or do not report visitor statistics.