Parks Canada Agency

Not a Canadian citizen but wanted to give a big shout out to Parks Canada in so many different areas after spending more than a month using the park system. (1) Website – user friendly and comprehensive. (2) Call center – Had an issue with a purchase and the person I spoke to was very personable/professional and quickly addressed my issue. (3) Annual pass – Having two ways to purchase very helpful. Purchased first online and found out I needed a second so bought at a retailer in Victoria. (4) New Reservation System – If you plan ahead and get to know the system, it is easy to use although the virtual queue is scary (was 36,000 in line at one point). I appreciate the approach to be more fair and keeping groups from buying out big blocks in some of the high demand areas. (5) Staff – From the rangers, to the staff at the gates to the people cleaning wash rooms, I found everyone we encountered to be very friendly and customer-service oriented. As the first line of direct contact, they are excellent ambassadors for Canada. (6) Recycling effort – Impressed by the availability and variety of recycling stations throughout parks. Well done! (7) The National Parks and Historic Sites (visited – What a national treasure and they speak for themselves (visited Kootenay, Yoho, Pacific Rim, Banff, Jasper, Ft. Langley so far). Now the challenge is to protect them from being overrun and to be there for future generations. Good start with the shuttles to Moraine Lake and Lake Louise but more needs to be done. (8) Overall – Had an incredible experience from when we entered Victoria to now and look forward to seeing more of Canada and its park moving forward.

Service client horrible, refus de remboursement malgré des conditions météo exceptionnelles (ouragan)

I was so impressed with the Walking Tour in Dawson City as they had a lot of Indigenous content and talked about Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people's and not just about the Gold Rush

The Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in are a Yukon First Nation based in Dawson City. The citizenship of roughly 1,100 includes descendants of the Hän-speaking people, who have lived along the Yukon River for millennia, and a diverse mix of families descended from Gwich’in, Northern Tutchone and other language groups.

Great Parks. Poor management and customer service. Let me explain. I booked sites for my family and another family in Banff and Jasper. There is a $11.50 plus tax fee per booking just for the privilege to reserve a site. This is on top of almost $30.00 per night for each site and the mandatory $10.00 per day fire permit for all sites. I booked 4 sites and these added up to $354.00 for 4 days. Fine. Something came up and we had to cancel our trip. I understood that the $11.50 plus tax booking fees were non-refundable. $50.00 to book 4 sites, is a bit much but ok fine. What is not obvious until you cancel, is an additional cancellation fee of 11.50+tax for each site. This is a bit much. It cost me almost $100.00 to use the website (it costs more if you call) to book 4 sites well in advance and then cancel them well in advance. Maybe this would be a bit easier to take if they issued me tax receipt for this forced donation. Parks Canada, you are pricing out lower income families and making these parks which belong to Canadians, inaccessible to many. STOP IT!

I visited several locks along the Trent Severn Waterway to watch the boats go by. I was definitely disappointed at the unkept state of the properties. I read somewhere that Parks is worried about the "Visitor Experience". Not sure that they know what that means.

OHH and further I was using the Trent Severn Waterway guide. This publication should be proof read.period. Manually or with the help of spellcheck as there is quite a few spelling mistakes.

Great parks, Unfortunately it is very hard to get in contact with them about cancelling a camp site. Tried for several days with no luck. Finally was able to cancel 2 days before booking but they are charging me for the stay anyways because "i did not cancel 3 days in advance" even though ive been trying to get in contact with them for over a week

After canceling they told me someone would call to investigate and see if can reimburse me. Mid phone call they hung up and haven’t called me back yet….

Parks/Environment is the 2nd most spent thing in Pigland, Healthcare is Number One most spent in Pigland, we are a Happy and Loving Country to have a Helping-Hand with Parks Canada for over 60 years, they have accepted our offer to support Canada's beautiful Parks and Environment, and our beautiful Parks and Environment. Our Government loves Parks Canada.

Thank you.

- Official Government of Pigland

Poor customer service. I purchased a Family/Group pass (paid extra for express delivery) on July 29,2019. I received my confirmation email on July 31 saying the pass has been shipped. It is August 14, no pass and we leave tomorrow. I was told that I need to purchase a whole new pass and then I need to send proof that I had to pay for another pass and hopefully I’ll get a refund. These passes are not cheap. On top of it, we had to pay over $700 for our West Coast Trail Passes. When did visiting Canada’s parks become something only people with money can do?

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.