Rock With Nova Scotia in 2010

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(Picture Courtesy of Andrew Cornwall)

A few years back I was accosted by an awful little man who owned a campground down the road. The reason? I had allowed a friend to park his RV on my acreage while he drove around Nova Scotia in his small car. He was from the west and wanted a break from the confines of his vehicle. In addition to bothering me this overzealous campground nut went to the local grocery store and banged on the doors of two RV’s from the U.S. who had parked for the evening.

I’m not an RV’er but I used to work in tourism and anything to do with tourism in the province interests me. Since then I have been doing research into this man’s claim that RV’s have to park in a registered campground. Here’s what I found on a sign at a Walmart.

“Section three (3) Article three (3) of the Tourism Accommodations Act states: “no person shall use, maintain, operate or manage a camping establishment or permit the use of any lands for the overnight parking or RV for the traveling or vacationing public unless there is a licence which is in force. 1994-95, c.9, s.3.”

I remember phoning up Doug Mathews of Tourism Nova Scotia and asking him about this ban and he was unapologetic. He gave me the impression that RV’ers were not important to Nova Scotia tourism and that they should camp in authorized camping areas to avoid “dumping their toilets in the ditches,” as he explained. He also said that they never bought gas here and “just a few groceries.” What an attitude for a paid employee of ours.

I don’t know if this attitude has changed at all but the law is supposed to be repealed in the spring. (Andrew Cornwall, the one who gave me the picture and wrote a study on the RV situation in Nova Scotia, has since informed me that the signs came down last fall and the law is supposed to be changed any time now)

It’s evident that he either has buddies in the Campground Association or they saw him robbing a bank. Because my RVing friends told me that in RV magazines and websites Nova Scotia has been chastised for this behavior toward RVers. And in the tourism economy we are going through right now (dismal) you would think that every RV coming here was sacred.

For Andrew Cornwall’s study, The Economic Effects in Nova Scotia
of the RV Overnight Parking Ban and Aspects of Campground Minimum Standards, Click Here