As the owner of Peak Fitness Boot Camp, I have no problem with fees being charged for using parkland as long as the fees are reasonable and the enforcement is fair. All companies should have adequate insurance in the first place so that should be a moot point.

Our boot camps have always been run to have as minimal impact as possible on the park, the neighbours and the community…although I can’t say the same for all outdoor group programs. We try to ‘blend in’ as opposed to ‘take over’.

However, my concern with the new fees would be that some companies, perhaps those that were already violating noise by-laws (if that is in fact true), may feel more of a sense of entitlement if they are now paying for the space and be less flexible in terms of working around and accommodating other park users. It would be unfortunate if that is the case as I would say the majority of us are trying to operate with a high standard of professionalism.

Our goal with our group programs is to leave the park better than when we found it…so you’ll often see a Peak instructor throwing away trash that was left from other users or offering free fitness information to interested passersby.

It’s a relatively new initiative from Parks and Rec so I’m sure the format will need tweaking over time to make it work for all.

However I do think that from a PR perspective, it may have been wise for the Parks Dept to space out the announcement of new fees with the launch of their own competing outdoor group programs. Certainly they are in their right to do as they please, but this would have made it just a little more palatable for those companies and citizens that took offence.

 Visit the original CBC article here:

http://tinyurl.com/mwj6gn