ARCHIVED - Parks Canada

• Previous Page
• Table of Contents
• Next Page

This page has been archived.

2008-09 User Fees Reporting Table 2-A: User Fees Act

A. User Fee	Fee Type	Fee-setting Authority	Date Last Modified	2008-09					Planning Years
				Forecast Revenue ($000)	Actual Revenue ($000)	Estimated Full Cost ($000)	Performance Standard	Performance Result	Fiscal Year	Forecast Revenue ($000)	Estimated Full Cost ($000)
Entry Fees	Other Products and Services	Parks Canada Agency Act	Increased in 2008	$54,761	$52,527	$150,097	85% of visitors are satisfied	93% of sampled locations exceed the standard	2009-10	$52,525	$141,100
									2010-11	$52,525	$140,581
									2011-12	$52,525	$140,517
Camping Fees	Other Products and Services	Parks Canada Agency Act	Increased in 2008	$15,750	$16,576	$27,726	85% of visitors are satisfied	93% of sampled locations exceed the standard	2009-10	$16,575	$26,064
									2010-11	$16,575	$25,969
									2011-12	$16,575	$25,957
Lockage and Mooring fees	Other Products and Services	Parks Canada Agency Act	Lockage and Mooring fees increased in 2008	$3,048	$2,472	$26,369	85% of visitors are satisfied	100% of sampled locations exceed the standard	2009-10	$2,470	$24,789
									2010-11	$2,470	$24,698
									2011-12	$2,470	$24,686
Pools	Other Products and Services	Parks Canada Agency Act	Increased in 2003	$3,603	$3,871	$5,003	85% of visitors are satisfied	For the 2008 cycle, no locations with this service were surveyed.	2009-10	$3,870	$4,703
									2010-11	$3,870	$4,686
									2011-12	$3,870	$4,684
Municipal Services	Other Products and Services	Canada National Parks Act	Water and sewer fees increased in 2001; remainder in 2003. Garbage fees increased in 1996.	$2,676	$3,121	$17,874	For water, the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality (2002) is the current standard. For wastewater, PCA will meet Federal Guidelines (1976) for effluent quality and work towards setting and meeting PCA leadership standards that are based on the receiving waters of each community. Garbage collection frequencies will be established in consultation with Community Councils and Business Community.	Water quality Guidelines are met or exceeded; wastewater effluent quality meets or exceeds Federal Guidelines.	2009-10	$3,120	$11,427
									2010-11	$3,120	$10,588
									2011-12	$3,120	$10,558
Other Revenues	Other Products and Services	Parks Canada Agency Act	Business licences increased in 1994; Other fees increased in 2008.	$13,548	$9,252	$46,388	85% of visitors are satisfied	93% of sampled locations exceed the standard	2009-10	$9,250	$43,583
									2010-11	$9,250	$43,420
									2011-12	$9,250	$43,399
Total				$93,386	$87,819	$273,457			2009-10	$87,810	$251,665
									2010-11	$87,810	$249,941
									2011-12	$87,810	$249,801

B. Date Last Modified

Multi-year fees for entry, camping, lockage and mooring and other revenues (excluding business licences) were approved in June 2005 for the years 2005-2006 to 2008-2009. New revenues are to be directed to maintain and improve associated services and facilities.

National consultations were held prior to the User Fees Act in 2003-2004. Parks Canada consulted locally with the public and stakeholders through meetings with advisory and client groups and through direct mailings. On a corporate level, Parks Canada consulted with national stakeholders and interest groups and conducted a national public opinion poll and focus group sessions. Notice was also provided on the Parks Canada website on proposals for fee increases.

There was widespread acceptance of the fee proposal on the condition that Parks Canada honours its commitment to invest the related revenue growth to rebuild deteriorated visitor facilities. To address concerns raised by users during consultations, Parks Canada made three major adjustments to its multi-year fee strategy prior to approval:
- The phase-in period for implementation was extended from three to four years for all visitor services in order to stagger price increases and reduce the cumulative impact of increasing all fees at the same time.
- To respect Parks Canada’s commitment to provide 18 months advance notice, implementation of proposed new commercial group fees was deferred until April 1, 2007 and the phase-in period extended from two to three years (2007, 2008 and 2009).
- The business licence fee proposal was withdrawn from the fee submission. A revised business licence proposal will reflect further research of municipal charging practices across Canada.

Following consultations, a comparison of Parks Canada's proposed fees with those charged by parks organizations in other countries was conducted. This research was carried out in the summer of 2004 and was incorporated into the submission. The Parks Canada's multi-year fee strategy was tabled in Parliament in March 2005 pursuant to the User Fees Act.

On July 1, 2006 and again on January 1, 2008, the Government of Canada implemented a one percent reduction to the GST. This affected all fees as the GST is included in all of Parks Canada approved fees. These reductions are not reflected in the date last modified column as they were not established through the full process, only reduced consistent with Government of Canada direction.

Municipal services, water, sewer and garbage fees are formula-based to allow for cost recovery. They may increase or decrease each year in response to changing costs. The exception, Riding Mountain, is not formula-based but is ready to proceed with consultation to make the change.

C. Additional Notes

The section for Real Property and Business Fees has been removed from the table in this reporting cycle, seeing that these fees are rights and privileges and as such not subject to the User Fees Act. The total forecasted revenue and expenditures for 2008-09 has been reduced to reflect this modification. In 2008-09, Real Property and Business Fees revenues was $ 20,953,900.

2008-2009 User Fee Reporting Template 2-B: External Fees

External Fee	Service Standard	Performance Results	Stakeholder Consultation
Entry Fees	85% of visitors are satisfied	93% of sampled locations exceed the standard	Standard is based on a long standing measure2
Camping Fees	85% of visitors are satisfied	93% of sampled locations exceed the standard	Standard is based on a long standing measure2
Lockage and Mooring Fees	85% of visitors are satisfied	100% of sampled locations exceed the standard	Standard is based on a long standing measure2
Pools	85% of visitors are satisfied	For the 2008 cycle, no locations with this service were surveyed.	Standard is based on a long standing measure2
Municipal Services	For water, the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality (2002) is the current standard. For wastewater, PCA will meet Federal Guidelines for effluent quality and wastewater (1976) and work towards setting and meeting PCA leadership standards that are based on the receiving waters of each community. Garbage collection frequencies will be established in consultation with Community Councils and Business Community.	Water quality Guidelines are met or exceeded; wastewater effluent quality meets or exceeds Federal Guidelines.	Canadian drinking water guidelines were established in 2002. Federal guidelines for wastewater effluent were established in 1976 and Parks Canada leadership targets established in 1997. The leadership targets are used as the basis for consultation with communities. Garbage collection standards have evolved over time in response to individual community needs and specific frequency of pickups is set in consultation with users.
Other revenues	85% of visitors are satisfied	93% of sampled locations exceed the standard1	Standard is based on a long standing measure2

Notes

1. For further details please see Program Activity 4: Visitor Experience.
2. Parks Canada has been using visitor satisfaction at surveyed sites as a measure of performance since 1996. The 85 percent satisfaction standard has been well established and communicated through the Agency’s corporate planning and reporting documents since 1999. In 1998, Parks Canada also introduced a Quality Service Guarantee that applies to all visitor services for which fees are paid. This initiative ensures that visitors have an immediate recourse if they are not satisfied with the quality of service provided or do not believe that they received value for fees. Through the Guarantee, the concern is immediately addressed up to and including a refund of a portion or entire fee paid. This achieves the spirit of accountability for performance as contemplated by the User Fees Act, and exceeds the Act’s requirements by refunding the user-fee immediately to a dissatisfied client.

• Previous Page
• Table of Contents
• Next Page