Province freezes provincial-park cottage fees

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This article was published 26/07/2016 (2824 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The new Manitoba government has made good on a promise it made in opposition to put a freeze on provincial-park cottage fees.

The two-year freeze will allow a new fee structure to be negotiated “that more accurately and transparently reflects service costs,” said Sustainable Development Minister Cathy Cox in a prepared statement.

There are about 6,000 cottagers at 18 provincial parks, 55 per cent of them in Whiteshell Provincial Park. The previous NDP government passed legislation that would see lakefront cottages lease fees rise 750 per cent, to the $5,000 to $6,000 level annually in the Whiteshell.

In opposition, the Progressive Conservatives said they would freeze lease fees and negotiate fairer rates with provincial park cottagers.

“I’m glad to hear that. We’re preparing to get those negotiations under way within the next couple months,” said Alan Roberts, a cottager at West Hawk Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park. Roberts is on the executive of the Whiteshell Cottagers Association.

“Cottagers have always maintained we’re not adverse to pay a reasonable amount, our fair share,” Roberts said. “But increases proposed by the previous government were ridiculous. It would have made owning a cottage unattainable for most Manitobans.”

The NDP backed down on its legislation for massive fee increases last December, after Tom Nevakshonoff replaced Gord Mackintosh as conservation minister.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca