Tag Archive for: Milton Heights Campground

Fair Taxation For Canadian Campgrounds

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Fair taxation? That is a loaded question for Canadians. With a top marginal rate in Ontario of 53.5 percent, I might argue that Canadians generally experience excessive taxation.

The issue of fair taxation is of concern to the RV industry in this country. Representatives from the Recreation Vehicle Dealers Association of Canada (RVDA) host an annual awareness day with the federal government in Ottawa. This year, it was held on Thursday, April 26th.

The RVDA issued a news release captioned with this headline: Without action, campgrounds face 300% increase in taxes.

The industry has quite an impact on the Canadian economy estimated at $14.5 billion annually and growing. Canada has over 4,200 campgrounds.

From the news release:

But the continued growth success of the RV and camping industry is not assured. The promotion of the RV sector and proper infrastructure in our existing parks are crucial to the growth of the RVing and camping industries, as well as a prosperous Canadian tourism sector. The RVing industry contributes billions to the national economy, but campgrounds across Canada require infrastructural improvements in order to accommodate new camping and RV technologies.

That is an understatement. We have found it very difficult to find parks and sites that will accommodate our 40-foot rig. The picture above shows our coach at Milton Heights Campground. One of the better campgrounds in the Greater Toronto Area but a far cry from the best RV parks in the U.S.

I am starting to see signs of Canadian campgrounds making investments specifically to support larger Class A Motorhomes. Like Salish Seaside RV Haven in Victoria, British Columbia:

The park has been completely redesigned to be truly “Big Rig Friendly”. It comprises 36 pads of which all but a very few will accommodate the largest Class A Motorhomes. Most sites are waterfront with spectacular views around Victoria’s harbour.

We won’t see very many parks making these improvements with excessive taxation from the government:

“Our industry needs to be sure that we will be governed by a fair tax regime, including being eligible for the small business tax deduction,” said Robert Trask, Chairman of the CCRVC. “Without clarification from the government, our members face retroactive tax increases of as much as 300%. Having campgrounds pay a higher tax rate than billion-dollar corporations is dumbfounding.”

You can read the full release here.

Clearance Check

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Space. Room to spare.

Unfortunately, many of the sites we have visited with our coach have very little space. Sites are small and tightly packed.

We first learned about checking for clearance when we visited the 1,000 Islands/Ivy Lea KOA in Ontario, Canada. It was our first trip out with the coach. We made a point of telling the KOA folks that we had a 40-foot coach and we would need a site where we could fit. “No problem”, they told us, “we have big rigs in here all the time.”

Looking at the site below, everything looks great. Getting to the site was a real adventure. Everything was very tight for space. And once we got in to this site? Well, what you do not see clearly from the angle of the photograph are the branches of the evergreen tree on the driver’s side resting directly on the roof of the coach.

Lorraine was very focused on the lower clearance of the coach when she guided me into the site that she did not look up. The coach lifted the branches over the top of the roofline and once the airbags had deflated, the branches remained propped up by the roof itself. Fortunately the branches did not damage the coach.

The only way we were able to exit that site was to have the KOA staff come and cut several branches from the tree.

Lesson learned. Or so we thought.

About a year later, we went to Milton Heights Campground to attend a Newmar Kountry Klub chapter rally. Our chapter rally was held last week. We quite enjoyed our time there.

Milton Heights is an old park with narrow roads and very narrow sites. For our stay, things were quiet and the surroundings pleasant.

Our entry into our site did not go as smoothly as planned.

Lorraine guided me into the narrow site. It was paved and, quite rightly, she wanted to ensure that the coach was positioned more or less centred on the narrow strip of pavement.

Unfortunately, the post for the water and electric service was tight to the narrow strip of pavement. Less than two feet. I hadn’t put the slides out as I had recently changed my routine when setting up at a site. Park, leave coach at ride height, turn engine off, exit coach, connect services, re-enter coach, slides out then jacks down. Thank heavens I followed that protocol.

I went to connect the services and, sure enough, there was no way that we would be able to put our full wall slide out without hitting the water and electric service pedestal.

Not enough space.

If I had followed our old protocol, we would have experienced damage to our full wall slide.

So, back into the coach. We repositioned the coach as far right on the paved strip as possible.

Just enough room to get the slides out.

A good reminder for us to really think about the space requirements for our coach. Many of the sites we visit were designed for a different class of motorhome. What I have learned is that if a campground looks tight, it is tight and it is best to walk out to the site first and check all clearances including clearances for the slides before making our way.

The Outpost

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Not really.

The dealer for our coach, the Hitch House, is located in Barrie, Ontario and, while the city itself is well north of Toronto, it seems to be firmly in the grasp of the Greater Toronto Region. It is a tough drive through some of the most heavily congested roads in all of Canada.

We dropped the coach off last weekend and it will be with the dealer for about three weeks. We will pick the coach up sometime during the week of May 7th.

We have a few outings planned in May including our very first Newmar Kountry Klub outing with the Muskoka Ramblers. The rally will be held May 26-28 at the Milton Heights Campground.

Looking forward to getting our coach back home though. Here is where we left the Castaway.