Editor,

When we arrived at Staysail RV Park this year, we were shocked to discover the plan to close the RV park permanently.

We have enjoyed camping here for 27 years and consider Oak Harbor our home away from home. Our children came with us for many years and were looking forward to bringing their children here. Over the years we introduced several of our friends to your city who have camped or stayed in hotels here while enjoying all that Oak Harbor has to offer. Since we live in BC on Vancouver Island, we particularly appreciated it when you had a reservation system in place.

We love this town and we love your RV park. We appreciate that it is a short drive to everything that the town has to offer and we can walk to shopping and restaurants while camping in this beautiful park setting on the ocean.

We are very aware that we are not residents of Oak Harbor or even citizens of your country and have no say in the decision-making in your community.

We also understand that the city’s first priority is to the citizens of Oak Harbor but it would be wonderful if the RV park could continue to co-exist in a mutually beneficial relationship.

We have also heard from residents of Oak Harbor that they are concerned about closing the RV park and its financial impact. The RV park is always full and we have been told that it generates approximately $200,000 in revenue yearly (without a lot of overhead since it is a self-pay park).

We eat in your restaurants, play golf, buy our groceries and gas here and spend a considerable amount in your businesses. Based on our spending habits and our friends who have camped here, we spend approximately three times the amount that we pay for camping each day on other goods and services in the community.

Therefore one can only conclude that the loss of the campground revenue will have a negative impact on the taxpayer and loss of the accompanying revenue of $500,000 to $600,000 will have a negative impact on the business community.

Over the years that we have camped here we have met many wonderful people and have felt very privileged to be a part of your town. If this decision is still under review, we just want to add our perspective and comments to the debate.

Rob and Carmel Owens

Campbell River, B.C.