As anyone who has tried to find a camp site on the Friday before a long weekend can tell you, finding a free space can sometimes feel like winning the lottery.
However, fewer campers will be turned away disappointed this year. The province said over 50 new sites will be ready by this summer in the Okanagan and Thompson regions.
Eight new sites are being built at Okanagan Lake South Provincial Park, which is north of Summerland on the shore of Okanagan Lake.
Thirty news sites are being added to the Badger Lake Recreation Site north of Kamloops while 17 sites are going in at the Scuitto Recreation Site in the Kamloops area.
Also notable for Okanagan residents are the 58 new campsites planned at Blanket Creek Provincial Park south of Revelstoke on the shore of Arrow Lake and the 20 new sites going in at Halfway Hot Springs in the Nakusp area.
NDP accuse Liberals of using camping announcement as pre-election ploy
Over 350 new campsites are expected to be operating province-wide this summer.
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These sites are part of a wave of 1,900 new campsites the Liberals originally promised last November.
The announcement that the new sites will be ready this year is part of a flurry of pre-election messaging from the provincial government, something the NDP is quick to criticize.
“There must be an election coming up because the government is spending taxpayer dollars sending cabinet ministers around to re-announce last year’s announcements. I think most British Columbians would rather see that money spent on parks,” said the NDP environment critic George Heyman.
However, the province defended the timing of Thursday’s announcement. The Liberals argued it is important to let the public know about the new campsites in the lead-up to camping season.
The NDP are also critical of the types of new campsites the province is creating.
Polak argued the province is creating a good balance between adding capacity at recreation-site campgrounds and creating new sites at provincial parks. She pointed out that some families prefer to use recreation sites.
The province said over 800 of the 1,900 new sites will be added to provincial parks. The rest will be installed at recreation sites.
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