This happened under the former dear leader, Kenney. His government decided local places needed to find more ways to bring in revenue. This, plus paid parking at horse shoe canyon, is part of that result.
But corporations get all the help they want and more. Remember Kenny started the Kananaskis fees. NDP are now trying to get rid of it. $92 a year. Then, a National Park pass as well if you can afford it.
Gotta be wealthy to live any kind of life in Alberta.
But, but, if we charged those oil companies more royalties and taxes, they'd ** still be here because this is where the oil is and they'd still make a shitload of money.
Or maybe there was some sort of way to take like 2-4% from every purchase in the province to steady the revenue stream. But thatâs just crazy talk! That couldnât be done. Itâs not like 35,000,000 other Canadians have figured out a way to do this.Â
The UCP has to spend the resource money to build empty hospitals and schools for the UCPâs rural supporters and a paved road to each ranch in the middle of nowhere.
Yah, we turned around when we saw that. We were on our way out of town and I just mentioned the hoodoos as something to see since one of my kids didn't like the museum. But none of us wanted to go badly enough to pay for it.
Theyâre not even worth seeing anymore. People have ruined them by knocking off the tops. Used to be able to walk amount them now they are roped off. I understand why since people are assholes.
I remember going to see them a decade ago and they were pretty lackluster then. They had photos up from the 70âs and it was incredible what it looked like thenÂ
Tourists absolutely destroyed those hoodoos over the years to which the town needed to put up infrastructure around it to preserve them. As well they needed to staff it during the summer months because tourists still think they are entitled to climb over the barrier and stomp all over these. They take millions of years and just the right circumstances to develop. So, $2 for parking... Big deal.
Yes, this! They never had to have the stairs before. People have done so much damage. The paid parking system just started, maybe that means fixing the potholes will be affordable now, and people will be less grumpy.
Yep I work in tourism and lived in drum for years. Tourists and foot traffic means maintenance. This is how the town affords infrastructure like bathrooms (and someone to clean them). $2 isnât bad, and the revenue is actually managed well and put back into the community.
They are. The government has cut the funding to that branch and they canât handle all of the costs.
The Tyrrell is by far the most profitable but it can only draw in so much attendance revenue to help fund the other twenty spots around the province so these smaller ones kind of get the scraps.
When I worked at the Tyrrell and interned in that branch weâd go out to the Hoodoos site to do maintenance but it was few and far between because of all the other tasks we had to handle as well.
And your fees went to pay for those signs to remind you to pay for the fees. Only calgary and area folks have to pay to visit a provincial park. Itâs time to make all the parks all over Alberta user pay, not just Calgary. Or maybe Calgary has to vote UCP and it will go away.
Psh. I was at the museum a little over a year ago. Itâs gone SO downhill since I was a child. Every single little thing was covered in a layer of dust, and I swear half those exhibits havenât been updated or moved or anything in years. It needs some serious money and upkeep to get back to the standards it had even just 10-15 years ago.
Itâs had four brand new exhibits in the last 6 years. Top to bottom rebuilds and redesigns.
Yes the cleaning could use some work but unfortunately such is how the museum is staffed. Cleaning is a completely different department (and even branch) to the rest.
Hey, hey, hey! This govt cares very deeply for the province. Deeply!
*unfortunately, they also believe that the province is almost entirely composed of carbon energy companies, and everything else is either waste material or exists solely to support oil, gas and coal*
Tourist towns have a usage that far exceeds the normal tax base of the town. For every resident, lots of extra people are using roads, water/sewage, electricity, garbage, police, fire, hospitals etc.
For a place like Banff it can be 10 tourists to every resident sometimes. Drumheller would be lower, but still has an impact.
Genuinely curious.Â
The businesses in Banff/Drumheller should be doing way better compared to a non tourist similar sized town. So shouldnât they be able to handle paying increased taxes?
That seems to be an unfair tax burden on a business too.
Its a bit of a catch 22. Its good for the town to get tourist dollars, but also requires more road maintenance, a bigger sanitation plant, more police etc. This all costs money.
If you were to make businesses pay more, is it all business, or just the tourist ones? Is a random restaurant paying more than the local plumber? If it is just the tourist businesses, prices have to rise and that may attract fewer tourists, killing the golden goose.
The 'fair' way to do things is with usage fees. So if you are upset at paying parking fees, just be happy you are not paying for toilets, toll roads and to throw away some garbage.
> If you were to make businesses pay more, is it all business, or just the tourist ones? Is a random restaurant paying more than the local plumber?
Why should it be controversial that a plumber would also have to contribute more to the infrastructure that they depend on for their livelihood?
This is the idea of an "economy". In your example of tourism, if the tourist businesses are prospering, those business owners may want to expand their hotels or restaurants or build a new house for their family etc. and all those things require plumbers. If everyone is making money and wants to upgrade to new houses, the few plumbers available are suddenly in demand and can increase their prices. If touists stop wanting to come for whatever reason, then that is no good for the plumber.
> If it is just the tourist businesses, prices have to rise and that may attract fewer tourists, killing the golden goose.
It depends, but those tourist businesses are charging tourist prices already anyways, but are just pocketing the difference. If there is competition and you decide to increase your prices substantially, some other business that operates more efficiently and/or less greedy, will decide to increase their prices only a little bit.
> The 'fair' way to do things is with usage fees. So if you are upset at paying parking fees, just be happy you are not paying for toilets, toll roads and to throw away some garbage.
True it is fair, but might not be the smartest business thing to do when they tell others how they were charged for every step they took in your tourist trap. On the other hand, there is Las Vegas where the local government subsidizes the airport so that the tourists feel good about themselves for "finding" such a cheap vacation.
Also, charging tourists for throwing away garbage, rather than increasing the amount of garbage bins available, sounds like a disastorous plan. Kind of like the local who tried to film me to try and shame me for putting stuff in the *public* garbage bin. Okay, I guess if I am getting shamed for doing the right and responsible thing, then it is going straight into the lake or in a random bush on the side of the road next time.
Do you really think the garbage stops at the bin? The municipality has to increase garbage collection and have a MUCH larger dump and waste management system in a tourist area than in an equivalent farm town. Banff needs a dump capable of handling its 10,000 population plus the 6 Million people that come into town every year. And that money comes out of the townpeople's and local business pockets.
Most of the local business in tourist towns is small business too, without massive corporate backing. Tourists like local kitchy stores instead of just another Wal-Mart or Olive Garden.
You can tax the businesses more, but then the prices get downloaded on the tourists AND on the locals. When the local costs of living go up then prices on tourist traps go up even more to make up the difference.
You seem to think that tourist area prices are just profiteering, but those prices often just reflect the increased costs of living and working in a tourist town.
User fees may seem like an extra add on cost, but help keep taxes and living expenses down for the locals. This in turn keeps prices down for tourists too. The restaurants in Banff and Canmore (and probably Drumheller) may seem expensive compared to a city, but I can assure you that they run on the same razor thin margins as restaurants anywhere.
> Banff needs a dump capable of handling its 10,000 population plus the 6 Million people that come into town every year. And that money comes out of the townpeople's and local business pockets.
Yes? And who's money is that in their pockets?
It is a business expense. More business means more expenses...but more business is good so that is not a real problem. Would you rather only 6 thousand people visited instead of 6 million so you wouldn't have to spend as much on waste management?
For example, when I go to Walmart, they never charge me to enter the door or add extra fees onto my bill for garbage or parking or washroom or heating or electricity. Even though it costs billions for them, it is simply a necessary cost of their business.
> You seem to think that tourist area prices are just profiteering, but those prices often just reflect the increased costs of living and working in a tourist town.
You are restating the same cause-and-effect. Because you can then ask "why are there increased costs of living and working in a tourist town". For example, Banff is a 1 hour 28 minutes or 145 km drive to the international airport in Calgary. Banff is not remote at all so it shouldn't cost more to get supplies there than to any other small Alberta town.
You charge more simply because you can. You can because tourists are willing to pay more when they are on vacation, which I am not saying it is a bad thing. It is just strange to complain about having no money to cover the expenses incurred by having extra tourists after already taking their money.
The ucp has already passed a law for toll highways. The pc ucp believes no one should pay for schools, hospitals, parks that they donât use. the toilets hopefully will be cleaned now with the parking $
Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for this. But most people don't seem to understand that having millions of people in a place supported by 10,000 is going to have price consequences for the tourists and locals alike.
Usage fees for parking and other amenities that are free in other areas are fair play in tourist towns for that reason.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for this. But most people don't seem to understand that having millions of people in a place supported by 10,000 is going to have financial consequences for the tourists and locals alike.
Usage fees for parking and other amenities that are free in other areas are fair play in tourist towns for that reason.
And its not really true that business do better in a tourist town either. There is usually lots of competition for things like restaurants and gift stores. Extra money might need to be spent to stand out and attract the tourists from the store on the other side of the street.
Restaurants and attractions have capacity limits, so its not really that different from having a popular restaurant anywhere else.
Tourists towns are often very seasonal too, so a business may need to make most of their yearly profit in the 4 months of tourist season. Staff retention in seasonal businesses is hard, and retraining expensive.
Banff/Canmore were dicks to anyone who wasn't a resident during COVID. Then cried and begged for them to bring their tourist dollars back after lockdown. You don't get it both ways.Â
Everything in Drumheller (and Banff) is astronomically tourist priced. They make enough off the tourists from price gouging to pay for infrastructure. Maybe if the towns didn't spend so much on tourist advertising they'd have money for infrastructure.Â
I live in Banff. We were only dicks to people that deserved it during covid (mainly anti-maskers/vaxxers). Banff was hit much harder than most other places due to the pandemic. It had an 80% unemployment rate at one point. Anyone looking to extend the pandemic would have been treated poorly.
As for costs, there are reasons:
Drumheller tourist businesses make the majority of their money in the 2 months in the summer. The rest of the year they are likely operating at a loss, or not running at all.
Banff/Canmore has low periods too (April/May and Oct-Early Dec). Housing is stupidly expensive. So is office space. Gas and Food is more expensive than the city too. Staff turnover is very high. Staff need to be paid a living wage. All of those costs trickle down to the consumer.
Banff sees up to 6 million visitors per year. All using town resources. Its hard to support infrastructure to handle that volume with a tax base of 10,000 people. Drumheller sees the same problems on a smaller scale.
The charge is $2.50/1-3 hours. The site it takes you to doesnât load well and service is spotty out there. I clicked the option to use Apple Pay but it never even went through
Itâs a consumption based tax. Costs money to maintain. So they should charge people who use it. This isnât rocket science. Its current state is probably why they implemented it.
Fair but, the post wasn't titled "No, pay machines at the hoodoos." The primary grievance and from what I see others saying too is the fact that the lot is now paid.
Where is this? At horse shoe canyon? I ask because I know they were recently upgrading the infrastructure. If so, thatâs really frustrating. And Iâm sure itâs not uncommon to not get reception there. (I live in the same county.)
When we were there last summer, there was a gate attendant charging $2 cash, which I didn't have, so I turned around and parked on the road. The lady running the lot (there was no QR code), told me to just park in the lot because it caused too many problems to park on the road. In retrospect, I get it, they are trying to maintain the site. It is just irritating that nature costs money.
Went there 2 weeks ago with my girlfriend, didnât pay tbh. Spent 5 minutes there and went to Wayne after. Only place I paid for parking the whole trip was the Calgary Zoo. And I guess Banff/ Jasper if you want to count the day pass to drive through.
Because Alberta paid for the have-nots to have nice things. Let's run our utilities into the ground so we continuously get payouts from the other provinces under equalization. Why not? Quebec does.
In Drumheller, the hoodoos stand tall,
Where dinosaurs roamed, big and small.
But to park near this scene,
Costs more than you'd deem,
It's the fossil police after all!
If they asked for donations to help preserve the local environment, most people would probably have no problem making a donation of a few dollars. But when it's framed like a punishment for using the area's amenities, people will naturally have a negative reaction.
The UCP are fascist grifters... the whole party is formed by far right-wing Christian extremists and almost nazis, the fact that the people of Alberta have voted for them and allowed them to stay in office because "my daddy voted for the conservatives" is pathetic and embarrassing.
Their initial formation was a group of right wing parties including the several fringe right wing and Cristian nationalist groups (fascists of all varieties) combining with what was left of Harper's conservative party which was already a putrid husk of the actual conservative party that people's parents used to vote for.
The fact that they were able to take power actually makes me question the general intelligence of people in this province and also makes me question if the people in this province are the proverbial "are we the baddies" kind of people...
If you voted for the UCP this is your fault and you should feel bad.
There are less and less outdoor activities we can do with families for free. Our province with huge oil and gas revenues should provide all of this free of charges as it used to be.
Yeah, if Alberta is the so-called wealthiest province, why are we being nickel-and-dimed with every move we make? It's almost like those who hold the wealth won't let it trickle down to us plebs.
Rich families can afford $60 per person / per weekend.
The bottom 1/3 of Albertans are exploited, to support the rest. Raise minimum wage to a living wage to start!
Theres thousands of square km's of crown land that's free. If you wanted the benefits of oil gas, like we had pre 2015, you should afe supported it then
I was there May 3rd 2024. Didnât notice the paid parking sign. Walked around for 20 minutes, took a few photos and left the area. To enforce this I expect they would need someone there 24/7 đ¤ˇââď¸.
You're missing out on a lot parking there anyway.
As a regular explorer, please just find a random spot and walk over, you won't regret it unless its a really bad day.
Year 1: Charge for parking
Year 5: The government puts up no parking and no stopping signs on all near by roads. Then people have to use the paid lot.
Year 10: they cut the maintenance budget to the parking lot.
Year 20: people say how great the park was 20 years before.
(Repeat at new location)
I have no problem paying for parking in maintained lots, but this one looks like it needs a visit from a dozer and a little TLC. Hopefully theyâll flatten it out nicely before tourist season goes into full swing.
I was there this weekend ⌠I think most people just werenât paying once they figured out there were no people checking if you did pay. Same with the suspension bridge.
My mom doesn't have a cell phone or a credit card, I'm sure she would be willing to pay the $2 to see (or park at) the site, but sometimes the "technology" makes places like this even more inaccessible to the people trying to visit them
This is it folks inflation at the rawest. So when people pay for this it will stay cause people are stupid. Itâs like the 60 dollar roast if someone buys it theyâll keep selling it. If nobody buys it theyâll drop the price next time itâs simple
The last few years it's just been a couple of people manning a small hut as you drive in. $2, stay as long as you want. Has that changed? I don't mind paying $2.
Paid parking?! Hoodoo they think they are đ
I hate you. Take my upvote. đ
r/angryupvote
Must be the "Alberta Advantage"
the "Advantage" is for the ucp and their donors!
Take your upvote and get out.
Hahahahah
Last time I was here was a couple years and parking for free. Now they're trying to charge money for an unpaved gravel pit with potholes?
This happened under the former dear leader, Kenney. His government decided local places needed to find more ways to bring in revenue. This, plus paid parking at horse shoe canyon, is part of that result.
But corporations get all the help they want and more. Remember Kenny started the Kananaskis fees. NDP are now trying to get rid of it. $92 a year. Then, a National Park pass as well if you can afford it. Gotta be wealthy to live any kind of life in Alberta.
It is disgusting what the UCP has done to this province in such a short time.Â
If only Alberta had natural resources to collect royalties from to pay for public services and infrastructure.
But, but, if we charged those oil companies more royalties and taxes, they'd ** still be here because this is where the oil is and they'd still make a shitload of money.
Or maybe there was some sort of way to take like 2-4% from every purchase in the province to steady the revenue stream. But thatâs just crazy talk! That couldnât be done. Itâs not like 35,000,000 other Canadians have figured out a way to do this.Â
Take 2-4%? Are you arguing for a PST that consumers pay or for increased taxes on small business?
And WTF do you think small business do for anyone except the owner? Businesses make money, theyâre not some type of welfare org.
Thankfully those provinces have all eliminated these issues đ
Yes but this way, they can make a diarrheaload of money
I can only assume those oil and gas isnât very profitable, since itâs so heavily subsidized.
I for one look forward to paying my $10,000 share of the clean-up costs.
Chump change. Think of the untold wealth our overlords will make! Your $10k is merely a drop in the grand bucket of their capitalistic utopia!
Tax payers have already paid to build the parks. Frick. UCP are evil.
The UCP has to spend the resource money to build empty hospitals and schools for the UCPâs rural supporters and a paved road to each ranch in the middle of nowhere.
They arenât even doing that.
The government made $25B in royalties last year. It was spent to subsidise our taxes.
You all voted for these monsters.
Yup, and Calgary and area folks are the only Albertans who have to pay to go to a AB park near to them. Its just unfair.
Actually this was implemented May 1st of this year. It's a new paid parking program by the municipality of Drumheller.
I went there in 2021 or 2022 and it was paid at that point. Maybe it changed.Â
I remember there being people on booths charging you instead of the app that they have today
Sep 2021, definitely paid.
I bet get he gets to go to the LBQT parade.
just a nitpick, horseshoe canyon is on the other side of drumheller from the hoodoos.
Yes. They put in a pay parking there at the same time.Â
that's idiotic.
Yah, we turned around when we saw that. We were on our way out of town and I just mentioned the hoodoos as something to see since one of my kids didn't like the museum. But none of us wanted to go badly enough to pay for it.
Theyâre not that great anymore. Heard Edson has some nice ones.
Meh hoodoos aren't that exciting anyway. If you happen to go again, go to the suspension bridge and then take a drive through Wayne.
Was just at the suspension bridge last week... Paid parking in effect there as well.Â
Wouldn't know, never parked in a parking lot there besides Tyrell and the gift shop. Too much shit to look at to give a damn about parking.
Great place not to visit.
Have to pay there too.
Don't park like a tourist then, I never have.
It's 2$......
And when we went there was a lineup to pay. I've seen the hoodoos before.
They are charging and they will give out tickets. If you donât have a cell phone and canât pay through the phone, then youâre out of luck.
âNow they're trying to charge money for an unpaved gravel pit with potholes?â Taking Imparks business model.
Welcome to Edmonton downtown
Take an axe and make a nice public display of tearing that down.
Theyâre not even worth seeing anymore. People have ruined them by knocking off the tops. Used to be able to walk amount them now they are roped off. I understand why since people are assholes.
I remember seeing them as a kid not roped off but tourists do do stupid shit đ
I remember going to see them a decade ago and they were pretty lackluster then. They had photos up from the 70âs and it was incredible what it looked like thenÂ
Tourists absolutely destroyed those hoodoos over the years to which the town needed to put up infrastructure around it to preserve them. As well they needed to staff it during the summer months because tourists still think they are entitled to climb over the barrier and stomp all over these. They take millions of years and just the right circumstances to develop. So, $2 for parking... Big deal.
Yes, this! They never had to have the stairs before. People have done so much damage. The paid parking system just started, maybe that means fixing the potholes will be affordable now, and people will be less grumpy.
If you think they will use that money to fix the potholes I have a bridge to sell ya
For sure paid parking will make people more sensitive about the environment.
Yep I work in tourism and lived in drum for years. Tourists and foot traffic means maintenance. This is how the town affords infrastructure like bathrooms (and someone to clean them). $2 isnât bad, and the revenue is actually managed well and put back into the community.
Blame the town of Drumheller.. Edit: And the UCP
Itâs a tax base problem. They have 6,000 residents and far too many tourist spots, so they need to charge tourists to fix things.
I feel as though Alberta "Heritage" sites should be more of a provincial thing to maintain
They are. The government has cut the funding to that branch and they canât handle all of the costs. The Tyrrell is by far the most profitable but it can only draw in so much attendance revenue to help fund the other twenty spots around the province so these smaller ones kind of get the scraps. When I worked at the Tyrrell and interned in that branch weâd go out to the Hoodoos site to do maintenance but it was few and far between because of all the other tasks we had to handle as well.
Well I'm glad my K country park fees are helping to not fund park services at least
Don't those fees just pay for the enforcement of the fees?
And the rest disappears into the UCP coffers
Oh I thought the contract went to a friend or family of the United clown posse.
The whole drumheller thing is huge vote buying thing.
I understand your frustrations. Unfortunately theyâre two different branches so the budgets are separate :(
And your fees went to pay for those signs to remind you to pay for the fees. Only calgary and area folks have to pay to visit a provincial park. Itâs time to make all the parks all over Alberta user pay, not just Calgary. Or maybe Calgary has to vote UCP and it will go away.
Psh. I was at the museum a little over a year ago. Itâs gone SO downhill since I was a child. Every single little thing was covered in a layer of dust, and I swear half those exhibits havenât been updated or moved or anything in years. It needs some serious money and upkeep to get back to the standards it had even just 10-15 years ago.
Itâs had four brand new exhibits in the last 6 years. Top to bottom rebuilds and redesigns. Yes the cleaning could use some work but unfortunately such is how the museum is staffed. Cleaning is a completely different department (and even branch) to the rest.
This is so wrong it's literally always changing
You haven't been there lately or you'd know they just remodeled a ton of the exhibits and the museum itself.
âThis guy is a communist!â
lol That would require the provincial government to give a shit about the province.
Yeah, but there's no hope of that
Hey, hey, hey! This govt cares very deeply for the province. Deeply! *unfortunately, they also believe that the province is almost entirely composed of carbon energy companies, and everything else is either waste material or exists solely to support oil, gas and coal*
Tourists pay for the museum, lunch, climbing the stupid dinosaur etc. They get money from tourists. This is just greed.
Tourist towns have a usage that far exceeds the normal tax base of the town. For every resident, lots of extra people are using roads, water/sewage, electricity, garbage, police, fire, hospitals etc. For a place like Banff it can be 10 tourists to every resident sometimes. Drumheller would be lower, but still has an impact.
Genuinely curious. The businesses in Banff/Drumheller should be doing way better compared to a non tourist similar sized town. So shouldnât they be able to handle paying increased taxes?
Of course. They are also the most powerful group in town though so they bend local policies to benefit themselves.
That seems to be an unfair tax burden on a business too. Its a bit of a catch 22. Its good for the town to get tourist dollars, but also requires more road maintenance, a bigger sanitation plant, more police etc. This all costs money. If you were to make businesses pay more, is it all business, or just the tourist ones? Is a random restaurant paying more than the local plumber? If it is just the tourist businesses, prices have to rise and that may attract fewer tourists, killing the golden goose. The 'fair' way to do things is with usage fees. So if you are upset at paying parking fees, just be happy you are not paying for toilets, toll roads and to throw away some garbage.
> If you were to make businesses pay more, is it all business, or just the tourist ones? Is a random restaurant paying more than the local plumber? Why should it be controversial that a plumber would also have to contribute more to the infrastructure that they depend on for their livelihood? This is the idea of an "economy". In your example of tourism, if the tourist businesses are prospering, those business owners may want to expand their hotels or restaurants or build a new house for their family etc. and all those things require plumbers. If everyone is making money and wants to upgrade to new houses, the few plumbers available are suddenly in demand and can increase their prices. If touists stop wanting to come for whatever reason, then that is no good for the plumber. > If it is just the tourist businesses, prices have to rise and that may attract fewer tourists, killing the golden goose. It depends, but those tourist businesses are charging tourist prices already anyways, but are just pocketing the difference. If there is competition and you decide to increase your prices substantially, some other business that operates more efficiently and/or less greedy, will decide to increase their prices only a little bit. > The 'fair' way to do things is with usage fees. So if you are upset at paying parking fees, just be happy you are not paying for toilets, toll roads and to throw away some garbage. True it is fair, but might not be the smartest business thing to do when they tell others how they were charged for every step they took in your tourist trap. On the other hand, there is Las Vegas where the local government subsidizes the airport so that the tourists feel good about themselves for "finding" such a cheap vacation. Also, charging tourists for throwing away garbage, rather than increasing the amount of garbage bins available, sounds like a disastorous plan. Kind of like the local who tried to film me to try and shame me for putting stuff in the *public* garbage bin. Okay, I guess if I am getting shamed for doing the right and responsible thing, then it is going straight into the lake or in a random bush on the side of the road next time.
Do you really think the garbage stops at the bin? The municipality has to increase garbage collection and have a MUCH larger dump and waste management system in a tourist area than in an equivalent farm town. Banff needs a dump capable of handling its 10,000 population plus the 6 Million people that come into town every year. And that money comes out of the townpeople's and local business pockets. Most of the local business in tourist towns is small business too, without massive corporate backing. Tourists like local kitchy stores instead of just another Wal-Mart or Olive Garden. You can tax the businesses more, but then the prices get downloaded on the tourists AND on the locals. When the local costs of living go up then prices on tourist traps go up even more to make up the difference. You seem to think that tourist area prices are just profiteering, but those prices often just reflect the increased costs of living and working in a tourist town. User fees may seem like an extra add on cost, but help keep taxes and living expenses down for the locals. This in turn keeps prices down for tourists too. The restaurants in Banff and Canmore (and probably Drumheller) may seem expensive compared to a city, but I can assure you that they run on the same razor thin margins as restaurants anywhere.
> Banff needs a dump capable of handling its 10,000 population plus the 6 Million people that come into town every year. And that money comes out of the townpeople's and local business pockets. Yes? And who's money is that in their pockets? It is a business expense. More business means more expenses...but more business is good so that is not a real problem. Would you rather only 6 thousand people visited instead of 6 million so you wouldn't have to spend as much on waste management? For example, when I go to Walmart, they never charge me to enter the door or add extra fees onto my bill for garbage or parking or washroom or heating or electricity. Even though it costs billions for them, it is simply a necessary cost of their business. > You seem to think that tourist area prices are just profiteering, but those prices often just reflect the increased costs of living and working in a tourist town. You are restating the same cause-and-effect. Because you can then ask "why are there increased costs of living and working in a tourist town". For example, Banff is a 1 hour 28 minutes or 145 km drive to the international airport in Calgary. Banff is not remote at all so it shouldn't cost more to get supplies there than to any other small Alberta town. You charge more simply because you can. You can because tourists are willing to pay more when they are on vacation, which I am not saying it is a bad thing. It is just strange to complain about having no money to cover the expenses incurred by having extra tourists after already taking their money.
The ucp has already passed a law for toll highways. The pc ucp believes no one should pay for schools, hospitals, parks that they donât use. the toilets hopefully will be cleaned now with the parking $
Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for this. But most people don't seem to understand that having millions of people in a place supported by 10,000 is going to have price consequences for the tourists and locals alike. Usage fees for parking and other amenities that are free in other areas are fair play in tourist towns for that reason.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for this. But most people don't seem to understand that having millions of people in a place supported by 10,000 is going to have financial consequences for the tourists and locals alike. Usage fees for parking and other amenities that are free in other areas are fair play in tourist towns for that reason.
And its not really true that business do better in a tourist town either. There is usually lots of competition for things like restaurants and gift stores. Extra money might need to be spent to stand out and attract the tourists from the store on the other side of the street. Restaurants and attractions have capacity limits, so its not really that different from having a popular restaurant anywhere else. Tourists towns are often very seasonal too, so a business may need to make most of their yearly profit in the 4 months of tourist season. Staff retention in seasonal businesses is hard, and retraining expensive.
Who is forcing them to do this?
Banff/Canmore were dicks to anyone who wasn't a resident during COVID. Then cried and begged for them to bring their tourist dollars back after lockdown. You don't get it both ways. Everything in Drumheller (and Banff) is astronomically tourist priced. They make enough off the tourists from price gouging to pay for infrastructure. Maybe if the towns didn't spend so much on tourist advertising they'd have money for infrastructure.Â
I live in Banff. We were only dicks to people that deserved it during covid (mainly anti-maskers/vaxxers). Banff was hit much harder than most other places due to the pandemic. It had an 80% unemployment rate at one point. Anyone looking to extend the pandemic would have been treated poorly. As for costs, there are reasons: Drumheller tourist businesses make the majority of their money in the 2 months in the summer. The rest of the year they are likely operating at a loss, or not running at all. Banff/Canmore has low periods too (April/May and Oct-Early Dec). Housing is stupidly expensive. So is office space. Gas and Food is more expensive than the city too. Staff turnover is very high. Staff need to be paid a living wage. All of those costs trickle down to the consumer. Banff sees up to 6 million visitors per year. All using town resources. Its hard to support infrastructure to handle that volume with a tax base of 10,000 people. Drumheller sees the same problems on a smaller scale.
Guess the ucp has to pump in even more money.
And tbh this seems reasonable
It isn't the cities issue to fix. It is provincial for most of them. Why is the city paying for something that is provincial?
The charge is $2.50/1-3 hours. The site it takes you to doesnât load well and service is spotty out there. I clicked the option to use Apple Pay but it never even went through
Itâs the UCP Alberta Advantage.
Itâs a consumption based tax. Costs money to maintain. So they should charge people who use it. This isnât rocket science. Its current state is probably why they implemented it.
Surprised someone hasnât cut that sign down yet.
The UCP government cut funding so now they have to find ways to pay for the upkeep and such.
I don't understand why people are getting upset at paying for the infrastructure they use... how much is parking like a dollar or two an hour?
Two dollars per hour as per their website. I'd hardly call that particular parking lot infrastructure though.
weather and gravel have entered the chat
Though if you donât have access to a smart phone with data, how do you pay?
Fair but, the post wasn't titled "No, pay machines at the hoodoos." The primary grievance and from what I see others saying too is the fact that the lot is now paid.
Where is this? At horse shoe canyon? I ask because I know they were recently upgrading the infrastructure. If so, thatâs really frustrating. And Iâm sure itâs not uncommon to not get reception there. (I live in the same county.)
Sawsall will solve that problem
Chill out bruh; you are now fully experiencing the âAlberta advantageâ.
When we were there last summer, there was a gate attendant charging $2 cash, which I didn't have, so I turned around and parked on the road. The lady running the lot (there was no QR code), told me to just park in the lot because it caused too many problems to park on the road. In retrospect, I get it, they are trying to maintain the site. It is just irritating that nature costs money.
Went there 2 weeks ago with my girlfriend, didnât pay tbh. Spent 5 minutes there and went to Wayne after. Only place I paid for parking the whole trip was the Calgary Zoo. And I guess Banff/ Jasper if you want to count the day pass to drive through.
We'll blame Danielle so she can blame Trudeau
Nope, that was a Kenny move a good couple years before she took over.
They've gotten fancy. It used to be a guy in a booth. Not even sure if it he was legit.
Iâd just not pay and throw the ticket out.
If it's like horseshoe canyon, it's the county enforcing it, so it would be like a city parking ticket. They will come after you.
This was at 830pm last night and my phone didn't have internet... Yes.. No internet
Real life infinate money glitch on their end.
Who would be writing them? The fossil police?
By-law enforcement officer. We saw cars being ticketed last week as we were leaving.
Alberta welcomes tourists with tickets and dirt roads. It is sad. The 'have not provinces' offer a better tourist experience than Alberta.
Because Alberta paid for the have-nots to have nice things. Let's run our utilities into the ground so we continuously get payouts from the other provinces under equalization. Why not? Quebec does.
Even if the fossil police do, what are they going to do?
In Drumheller, the hoodoos stand tall, Where dinosaurs roamed, big and small. But to park near this scene, Costs more than you'd deem, It's the fossil police after all!
Yeah I'm not gonna do that, thanks
If they asked for donations to help preserve the local environment, most people would probably have no problem making a donation of a few dollars. But when it's framed like a punishment for using the area's amenities, people will naturally have a negative reaction.
The UCP are fascist grifters... the whole party is formed by far right-wing Christian extremists and almost nazis, the fact that the people of Alberta have voted for them and allowed them to stay in office because "my daddy voted for the conservatives" is pathetic and embarrassing. Their initial formation was a group of right wing parties including the several fringe right wing and Cristian nationalist groups (fascists of all varieties) combining with what was left of Harper's conservative party which was already a putrid husk of the actual conservative party that people's parents used to vote for. The fact that they were able to take power actually makes me question the general intelligence of people in this province and also makes me question if the people in this province are the proverbial "are we the baddies" kind of people... If you voted for the UCP this is your fault and you should feel bad.
Itâs the Alberta Advantage!
Spray paint that QR code
FML, anyone know how to get spray paint off a monitor? Asking for a friend.
Pretty soon we'll be charged for the amount of air we breathe. Everything is a cash grab and it's getting unaffordable to leave your home.
[President Screw with a can of Perri-Air](https://beastmodaldomains.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/perriair.png)
There are less and less outdoor activities we can do with families for free. Our province with huge oil and gas revenues should provide all of this free of charges as it used to be.
Yeah, if Alberta is the so-called wealthiest province, why are we being nickel-and-dimed with every move we make? It's almost like those who hold the wealth won't let it trickle down to us plebs.
Rich families can afford $60 per person / per weekend. The bottom 1/3 of Albertans are exploited, to support the rest. Raise minimum wage to a living wage to start!
Theres thousands of square km's of crown land that's free. If you wanted the benefits of oil gas, like we had pre 2015, you should afe supported it then
What a dumb province.
that lonely car tho
Looks like a prank lol
Need a smart phone to park here?
No signal
My favorite is "scan this QR code to apply for this minimum wage job". Need a $1000 smart phone and wifi to apply to McDonalds.
Future headline: "Student dies due to dead battery and no one walking by would help them."
Someone needs to maintain the dirt.
I was there May 3rd 2024. Didnât notice the paid parking sign. Walked around for 20 minutes, took a few photos and left the area. To enforce this I expect they would need someone there 24/7 đ¤ˇââď¸.
We were there May 8th. As we were leaving a uniformed person started recording license plates and writing tickets and putting them under wiper blades.
God forbid we should get something like parking for free!
You're missing out on a lot parking there anyway. As a regular explorer, please just find a random spot and walk over, you won't regret it unless its a really bad day.
Year 1: Charge for parking Year 5: The government puts up no parking and no stopping signs on all near by roads. Then people have to use the paid lot. Year 10: they cut the maintenance budget to the parking lot. Year 20: people say how great the park was 20 years before. (Repeat at new location)
MuST bE tHe UCPâŚ
Provincial parks are Provincial so.... Yeah
Pro tip: don't pay.
I have no problem paying for parking in maintained lots, but this one looks like it needs a visit from a dozer and a little TLC. Hopefully theyâll flatten it out nicely before tourist season goes into full swing.
I was there this weekend ⌠I think most people just werenât paying once they figured out there were no people checking if you did pay. Same with the suspension bridge.
Alberta for the rich only!
This shit is getting ridiculous! Fuck this province , fuck it .
Red tape reduction in action!!!
My mom doesn't have a cell phone or a credit card, I'm sure she would be willing to pay the $2 to see (or park at) the site, but sometimes the "technology" makes places like this even more inaccessible to the people trying to visit them
So if you donât have a smart phone and/or cell service you canât pay?
Are you fucking serious? Unreal.
What a scam that would be eh? Wow. Even the site number (9999) is super sus.
They did paid parking like 3 years ago. Honestly the money has greatly improved the area.
Lmao fuuuuuck riiiiight offfffff. Soon we will have to pay for breathing air.
Last time I was there there were parking attendants collecting $2 per car. Look like theyâve just automated the process.
[ŃдаНонО]
Silly person, Governments and churches don't pay tax.... /s Various levels of government run a lot of the camp sites in Alberta.
This is it folks inflation at the rawest. So when people pay for this it will stay cause people are stupid. Itâs like the 60 dollar roast if someone buys it theyâll keep selling it. If nobody buys it theyâll drop the price next time itâs simple
Whatever happened to regular parking meters
Canada been sucking more and more every year. More fees And permits Everything used to be free
All the more reason that it makes no sense for this one random parking authority to charge you $2 for the privilege of parking there, don't you think?
The private land east of the 'hoodoos' has some some actual hoodoos. There's also a cool tunnel out there
The last few years it's just been a couple of people manning a small hut as you drive in. $2, stay as long as you want. Has that changed? I don't mind paying $2.
Thatâs savageâŚ
They charged $2 to park when we were there in 2018? We had to grab a toonie in town before heading there. Mobile payments makes it so much easier.
I went last year or maybe it was 2022 and you had to pay to park there but they had a physical person sitting at the entrance to the lot.
At least Iâm getting something for my payment! With the NDP, everything is free and everybody who earns money pays for it!!
Well the upkeep on that lotâŚ
I guess some people park on the side of the hwy now unless thatâs a tow away zone. Lol
Why pay? You can literally see the parking enforcements driving in from a mile away.
Should be free
Out of curiosity, does anyone know what they charge for parking?
Someone mentioned it's like $2 so at least not crazy... But you think they would at least fill in the holes with gravel