NDP scraps provincial park fees for a year

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This article was published 19/03/2025 (200 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobans bracing for fallout from U.S. tariffs will be able to get away from it all — for free — at a provincial park.

Entry to provincial parks will be waived for one year, starting April 1. The measure is included in the Manitoba budget, which will be unveiled Thursday.

“We live in a beautiful province with lakes, trails and wild spaces perfect for hunting, fishing and camping with friends and family,” says a snippet from Budget 2025 that was provided to the Free Press.

“As Manitobans and Canadians choose to spend their vacation dollars and time here at home, we are making parks entry free for one year while we transition out of the parks reservation contract with a Texas firm started under the previous government and find a Canadian vendor.”

When the first round of U.S. tariffs were about to hit on Feb. 4, Premier Wab Kinew singled out Manitoba’s “terrible contract” with Aspira, an outdoor recreation software company headquartered in Dallas.

“Shouldn’t we be paying a Manitoba company to enjoy Manitoba?” Kinew asked reporters at a news conference minutes before the Trump administration postponed 25 per cent tariffs for 30 days.

The contract is set to expire in April, with an option to extend it for two consecutive one-year terms. The Progressive Conservative government of Brian Pallister hired Aspira in April 2019 to launch virtual retail sales of park passes and fishing and hunting licences as of 2020.

An administrative fee of $4.50 per transaction was introduced in exchange for the convenience of booking online. Since then, more than $7 million has gone stateside. Before Aspira was hired, licences and permits were sold in-person at local retail outlets.

Provincial parks will be free to enter but campsite fees will be charged. A Canadian firm will handle the transactions.

Finance Minister Adrien Sala said Manitoba’s fiscal blueprint for the 2025-26 fiscal year, meanwhile, will combat tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“As Manitobans and Canadians choose to spend their vacation dollars and time here at home, we are making parks entry free for one year.”

“That budget will respond to the threats that Donald Trump is creating for our economy and for our sovereignty,” Sala said at Canada West Boots.

On Wednesday, he followed the budget-eve tradition in which the finance minister buys a new pair of shoes. In this case, it was steel-toed work boots he gave to five trades students from Tec Voc High School.

“We’re going to be building a lot of projects here in our province and putting people to work and creating great jobs here in Manitoba,” Sala said.

A plan he referred to as “Building One Manitoba” aims to create a resilient and more sustainable economy by adding jobs and giving all families a chance to get ahead and succeed, Sala said.

“That’s really important in light of the threats we face from the south of us,” the minister said.

On March 12, 25 per cent tariffs were imposed on aluminum and steel. Levies of 25 per cent on most other goods and 10 per cent on energy from Canada are expected to take effect on April 2, after Trump paused the tariffs he had imposed on March 4.

Manitoba’s counter-measures include deferring payroll and retail sales taxes for three months, pulling U.S. booze from Liquor Mart shelves and looking at how the province may use Manitoba hydroelectricity and critical mineral exports to the U.S. as “leverage” in the fight with the much larger opponent south of the border.

Kinew has said Manitoba may take more actions. He hasn’t indicated how much counter-measures may cost, or how much his government is willing to borrow to shore up the economy.

Sala said Wednesday the budget will include support for businesses and farmers affected by U.S. tariffs as well as those imposed by China, which is slapping a 100 per cent levy on Canadian canola starting Thursday, Manitoba’s budget day.

In the middle of an escalating and unpredictable trade war with Trump, Manitoba has prepared two budgets — one that accounts for the impact of the U.S. tariffs and one without.

“That budget will respond to the threats that Donald Trump is creating for our economy and for our sovereignty.”–Finance Minister Adrien Sala

“You’ll see a contingency tariff budget along with the main budget,” the finance minister said.

Manitobans will see how the province is prepared for whatever lies ahead, Kinew said Tuesday at an unrelated event.

“You’ll see our plan, assuming the rest of 2025 going into 2026 goes well, and then you’ve got the contingency in case we need to step up with even more supports for the economy and for business,” the premier said.

“We’re going to try and show that transparency, so that you’ll be able to see both scenarios: ‘here’s what the books would look like if Trump wasn’t up to what he’s up to each and every day’ and then ‘here’s the contingency plans that we have in place to support our economy and support our jobs’,” Kinew said.

The NDP government is up against a $1.3-billion deficit, which is the highest during non-pandemic times, and economic uncertainty as it promises to resolve health care and homeless issues.

Still, it’s standing by its pledge to balance the books during its first term in government.

“We’re still committed to balancing the budget by 2027, by the end of this mandate,” Sala said Wednesday.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca