b'ously,thesmallbusinesstaxissue WCM: In the U.S., larger develop-Camping in Ontario continues to find ways to might impact how owners invest in ment companies are starting to buysupport its members through events like CampEx.their parks, but are you seeing the in- moreparksandinvestinbuildingvestments from owners insofar as park parks as well. Are you seeing a similarmodel RVs and unique accommoda- trend?tion units?Anderson: There is more of a corpo-Anderson: The park model RV indus- rate presence. Sun Communities Inc.try in Ontario is extremely strong and a has 16 parks in Ontario and has hadlot if it is centered around the city of them for a number of years. We do haveToronto.Trafficthroughoutthe some newer corporation entities com-Toronto area makes it very difficult for ingintothemarket,buttheover-people to store their own trailers, so whelming majority of our membershipmostofourcamperswanttoleave is family run businesses. The interest-their trailers outside the city because ing trend we are seeing is families buy-nobody wants to pull a trailer for three ing their second or third park. We arehours then have to go and set it up. In- also seeing ownership getting muchstead, we are seeing a lot of campers younger. Older individuals are sellingutilize park model RVs. We also are see- andthepeoplethatarebuyingtheing a lot of yurts and really a full spec- parks tend to be younger and tend totrum of options.have already had previous business ex-perience. We are seeing a lot of parksthat needed a little bit of help beingbrought back to life as active, vibrantcampgrounds.WCM: Weather was an issue for someparkownersintheU.S.thispastspring. How did the weather impactpark owners in Ontario?Anderson: It was terrible. It was a verydifficult summer for a lot of our mem-bers. Four out of the five Great Lakesare sitting at well above normal waterlevel. Lake Erie and Lake Ontario areboth extremely high and we have peo-ple on Lake Erie that have actually lostproperty into the lake due to soil ero-sion.WCM: We are seeing more park own-ers looking for ways to extend theirseasons later into October. Is that trendsomething you are seeing in Ontario?Anderson: Thecamperdemandisdefinitely there, but the municipal by-Municipality rules restrict when parkscan be open.laws prohibit our owners from stayingopen. A lot of our owners would love tooffer winter camping but they are justsimply not allowed to. That only ap-plies to the privately-owned parks; theprovincial parks are allowed to operate.WCM: With Camping in Ontario atthe 50-year mark, what does the futureof the association look like? What areyou focused on, moving forward?Anderson: Canada has always been anation of campers. I think that as webecomeamoreurbanizedcountry,one of the most important things weneedtofocusonisprobablygoodmental health. Getting out in nature isprobably going to be the most impor-tant thing that we do. I think that that will be the reasoncamping will continue to exist. Whoknows what form it will take in the next50 years, but I think the Canadian con-nection with nature is never going tobe severed to the point where the in-dustry disappears because it is a part ofwhoweare. ThereisnothingmoreCanadian than a campfire, marshmal-lows, and a beer. Well, maybe throw ina hockey stick.WCM40 -October 2019Woodalls Campground Management'