More families turning to financial aid to afford overnight summer camps

The rising cost of living is forcing many Canadian families to make tough choices about where to spend their money, including whether they can send their kids away to summer camp.

For Spruce Grove, Alta., mom Cinda Bischoff, an overnight camp experience for her 11-year-old daughter isn’t fitting into the family’s budget this summer. 

“It’s always hard to tell your kids ‘no’ when they want to go do something,” said Bischoff. “The rising cost of everything in life has made it difficult.”

Bischoff said the pressure has been compounded by recent health challenges. 

“I’m a recovering breast cancer survivor and just going through that for the last few years and having that added cost on our family just makes it hard for us financially to afford it.”

Camps seeing growing demand for financial aid 

Some camp operators in Alberta said they are seeing that financial pressure on families, too.

“We’ve had a challenging season for enrolment,” said Jon Olfert, the executive director of Camp Valaqua in Water Valley.

Registration is down about 17 per cent compared to this time last year, or roughly 50 fewer campers. 

“We’ve encountered some families that have had to withdraw enrolment because they just couldn’t handle the cost,” said Olfert. 

Five nights at Camp Valaqua cost about $430. Olfert said they bumped up registration fees by five per cent this year to help offset their own rising operating costs. 

“Camp is a discretionary expense, and so we understand that’s one of the first things that has to go for some families,” said Olfert. 

The lower enrolment has also affected operations, forcing the camp to reduce some seasonal staff schedules.

At the same time, requests for financial assistance, which is funded by donors, have more than doubled this year, approaching $5,000. 

“We typically will subsidize up to 50 per cent of the cost. We can do more if that’s what it takes. The goal is to make finances not the barrier to being at camp,” said Olfert. 

About a half-hour away, Camp Evergreen is seeing steady enrolment — as well as growing reliance on aid programs.

“What we’ve noticed is that our subsidy programs have been accessed more in the last two to three years than they’ve been previous to the pandemic,” said executive director Courtney Armstrong. 

The camp is looking at subsidizing almost $120,000 in registration costs this summer for people who have asked for financial aid, said Armstrong.

Despite rising costs across the sector, Camp Evergreen kept fees steady this year at about $800 per week.

“We really sensed last year — and how much our subsidy programs were requested — that we were hitting a threshold in our prices that we didn’t feel that we could go past this year with the economy [the way] that it is,” said Armstrong.

Financial pressure extends well beyond summer camps

United Way Centraide Canada said families are increasingly cutting back on discretionary spending as household budgets tighten. 

Polling conducted by Leger across the country for United Way showed the category people most often cut back on is leisure, said Anita Khanna, the organization’s vice-president of government relations and public policy.

“In the case of families, this could be trips to museums or enriching experiences that help their child understand the world around them and support their development and exposure to new cultures or new information,” said Khanna.

She said that can have lasting impacts on children.

“It’s creating an inequity for those lower income children or even moderate income children whose families are dealing with tight budgets or living in poverty,” she said. 

Subsidies becoming more important nationwide 

The Canadian Camps Association said enrolment across the country remains relatively stable, but some operators say parents are being forced to make trade-offs.

“We’re hearing that families are telling some camps that they literally have to choose between putting their child in summer sports and sending them to camp because their budget can’t support both,” said executive director Matt Wilfrid. 

He said there is an increased need for subsidy programs across the country.

Wilfrid said the majority of camps are non-profit organizations that raise money for financial assistance programs. He encourages parents to ask what help may be available before ruling out camp completely. 

“Camps often will have a program that they can access to get their kid to camp for more affordable rates. Just reach out and ask.”