At this time of year, just about everyone is going to make some use of a park, be it a huge one like Banff National Park or a tiny one at the end of your street.

Whatever their size, all parks serve a common purpose, offering visitors of all ages and all status in the community an opportunity to spend their leisure time in an area that has been set aside for them to enjoy.

In the case of Ontario's provincial parks, they once were essentially free and even today there's no "walk-in" charge of the sort found in conservation areas. But back in the 1950s, then-premier Leslie Frost approved a $3-a-night charge for camping about the same time he gave us what was dubbed the "Frost Bite," a 3% provincial sales tax.

Since then, successive governments of all stripes have thrown caution to the winds in imposing higher and higher user fees. In fact, 2006 is the first year in decades that the parking and admission fees at the provincial parks have been maintained at last year's level.

We haven't seen just when the freeze was decided upon, but a visit to the Ontario Parks Web site will provide confirmation that a general 10 per cent hike shown in the glossy parks brochures didn't take place.

Our suspicion is that someone finally pointed out that the proposed 2006 rates were entirely out of line with those in place both in national parks and in other provincial parks systems.

For example, the proposed $32-a-night charge for a "premium" campsite in our more popular provincial parks compares with $24 at the Cypress Lake campground in Bruce Peninsula National Park and a maximum $20-a-night charge in Alberta provincial parks. (A check of the Alberta Web site showed that some less popular campgrounds have charges as low as $5 a night and a typical charge is $12.

Even as it is, some of the Ontario charges aren't simply user-pay but are more appropriately dubbed "user-hosed." Take, for example, the charge for making

an online campsite reservation. It's the same $12 charged for using the tollfree phone reservation system, something that can easily tie up an agent for many minutes.

We would also like to see the justification for charging $33 a night (about $1,000 a month) for the privilege of parking your trailer on a "premium" campsite that has a picnic table, electrical outlet and a firepit.

Granted, the rates are somewhat lower at less-popular parks, particularly in Northern Ontario. However, the cheapest sites in parks that have no showers still cost $20.25 a night, or more than $600 a month.

As we see it, the charge for overnight camping in a park ought to cover only the cost of maintaining the campground. The other costs involved in the operation and/or expansion of our provincial parks ought to be recovered from general revenues.

And speaking of expansion, that's something which in Ontario is notable for its absence.

Although Ontario now has more than 11 million residents, our provincial parks system is likely no larger today than it was 40 years ago.

In fact, the only new "full-service" provincial park on the Great Lakes in that period is Awenda, near Midland, and in the same period Devil's Glen Provincial Park has been closed and the number of campsites at the ever-popular Craigleith Provincial Park has been sharply reduced.

Closer to home, the main changes at Mono Cliffs and Forks of the Credit parks has been the imposition of parking charge.

Unlike other provinces and many U.S. states, Ontario has never seen a need to provide simple roadside campgrounds that target tourists who want to park their recreational vehicles for the night by a lake or stream.

Like our equally-missing serviced rest areas, such mini-parks are immensely popular and can be operated on a self-serve basis, without the need for full-time park staff.