(submitted photo/ Paul Teplitsky)

By Nicole Reis

Provincial Park Enforced Parking

Loon Lake golf club dispute Makwa Provincial Park vehicle fees imposed next spring

Aug 14, 2020 | 5:22 PM

The Makwa Provincial Park will be implementing visitor entry fees next year, and a board member of the Loon Lake Golf and Country Club says it will lead to ‘economic suicide’ for the organization.

Paul Teplitsky says imposing fees to enter the grounds where the golf course and restaurant operate will “destroy a valuable community asset.”

“The government receives our financial statements every year and can see revenue is falling. We exist on a shoestring budget run by volunteers [which] makes their park sticker requirement callous, cruel, and mis-guided,” Teplitsky said. “A one size fits all policy is absurd.”

The fees are the standard provincial park rates at $10 per day, $40 per week and $75 annually.

Several board members told meadowlakeNOW the course was built by volunteers approximately 28 years ago on Crown land. SaskParks purchased the land sometime around 2003. To their knowledge, no other fees were specified and there has been no entry fee requirement during the club’s existence. The entry to the facility is within the park but the park gate to the campground is past the club.

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Assistant Deputy Minister Jennifer Johnson with SaskParks under the Ministry of Parks Culture and Sport said the golf course itself is on park land and the operators are commercially leasing the property.

“It’s very clear they are on park land so anything on park land, entry fees are supposed to be charged,” Johnson said.

Park fees help maintain roads, keep forests and grasslands healthy provide services and amenities, and maintain campsites for visitors, she said. She noted improved amenities at the park attracts tourism.

Entry to Loon Lake Golf and Country Club entrance where the SaskParks booth sits in the background. (submitted photo/Paul Teplisky)

In a petition circulating online, the golf and country club board disputes the vehicle fees, stating it will lead to a loss of casual restaurant clientele, a loss in revenue, and a lack of contribution from SaskParks to maintain golf course grounds. Teplitsky said the golf course currently pays 3.9 per cent of its gross revenue per year to SaskParks with nothing in return. He said the business is also suffering due to the pandemic.

Within the last two weeks, board members said they were surprised to see two parking enforcement signs erected on the property informing drivers of parking violations should they not have a park pass. Parking tickets for vehicles without a park pass are $90.

“It’s a small money-grab for taking vehicle parking passes and it will hurt us enormously and all that revenue they planned on collecting will be down the drain,” Teplitsky said. “You can’t collect revenue from a dead industry.”

Speaking generally and not to this specific case, lawyer Russell Gregory of Gregory Law office in Meadow Lake said park lands may not be patented lands or may not be brought within the titles system. He said he recommends his clients know where they are building and what they are buying based on a title search within the Saskatchewan Land Titles Registry. Surveyors can also offer land title descriptions to avoid building on someone else’s land.

“Based on a description of who owns what land, a commercial lease is a potential dispute between a landlord and tenant and the terms of the lease,” he said. “If certain things are not addressed in a lease, in their matters of interpretation, it’s available to the courts to interpret leases where obligations aren’t clearly spelled out.”

Gregory’s opinion of the leases in SaskParks is they are outdated as is the entire system for the parks, he said.

“There is a lacking of database, unlike land titles that are patented land, there’s no database to be able to search for leases,” he said. “Their entire transfer and registration process for leases is very antiquated and slow. We have the ability to search titles online, transfer and [have] registrations with two to three days. Leases are not processed in these time frames.”

Historical records were destroyed in a fire to the golf course’s clubhouse in June 25, 2017. In most cases, SaskParks holds copies of lease details.

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nicole.reis@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @nicolereis7722