After an increase in camping on Town of Inuvik property from Dempster Highway tourists, the town has created signage and brochures encouraging the use of dedicated campsites.
“We certainly welcome tourists to come up, but we’ve got two really nice campgrounds in Inuvik that have washrooms, showers, fire pits, picnic tables, and for really reasonable costs,” said Inuvik Mayor Peter Clarkson.
According to the NWT Parks website, fees for both Jàk Territorial Park and Happy Valley Territorial Park are around $30 a night.
Councillors brought the issue to town staff in a July council meeting. Inuvik’s senior administrative officer, Cynthia Pihlaja, told council during an August 12 meeting that signage has been added at the Midnight Sun Complex, the Welcome Centre and at two municipal parks saying camping is not allowed in those areas.
“For the most part, people are understanding. There has been a couple situations where it wasn’t well received but the individuals complied anyways,” Pihlaja told councillors.
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Clarkson said camping on municipal property has increasingly become an issue but signage has helped.
“It’s one of those things that, as time went on, there was more and more people camping in public places and, as that increased, then it just became more of a concern,” said Clarkson.
“If you had a couple people in the entire summer camping in a public place, it may not be that noticeable. But when you’ve got 10 people in their motorhomes or their holiday trailers camping each night, then you start to realize this is a bigger issue than what it was when it started.”
He said there were also reports of visitors dumping grey water in a parking lot, “which isn’t the best thing to be dumping in a parking lot.”
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Clarkson said the town still welcomes visitors but wants them to be aware where they can and can’t stay overnight.
Pihlaja said town staff have created a brochure about camping options that is available at the Welcome Centre and provided to bylaw officers, who patrol common areas in the town for overnight camping.
“I think [the NWT’s Department of] Industry, Tourism and Investment has done a good job on preparing the campgrounds so that they are available for tourists each year. So we just wanted to make sure that the tourists knew that, and that there were places to go,” Clarkson said.
