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Locals angered at $45 fee on Bear Mountain
Surrounding residents are rallying against the property owners

Mount Finlayson, a part of Goldstream Provincial park, has trails that cross into the property of Bear Mountain. Photo: Keri Hobbs
Bear Mountain has been heavily criticized the past few weeks, as it begins to implement fees for non-residents to pay when accessing the property, leaving locals feeling confused and exploited.
Mount Finlayson’s trails, which are considered part of Goldstream Provincial Park, go through Bear Mountain properties and have always been free to access. For years, locals and visitors have used the beautiful walking trails, like Kimberley Falconer, who lets her son use the trails to walk up to his friend’s house. Falconer’s entire family uses the trail for a quick shortcut to other neighbourhoods—for her son, it is just a 10-minute journey from her location in the lower Highlands to Haddington almost every week.
Out on a walk with her family one morning, a security guard pulled Falconer’s family over and told her that Bear Mountain was now asking non-residents to pay a fee to access the property, leaving her extremely frustrated.
“So my son can't walk up to his friend's house in the higher neighbourhood now unless he has a $45 pass,” says Falconer. “Up at the top of Haddington, it's still the Highlands community.”
The new fee is being called a waiver by Bear Mountain, and allows access to not only trails, but also the facilities; despite this access, many residents do not want to pay the waiver to only use the trails.
Now, locals across the area are rallying with the community over the lack of clarity, communication, and publicity of this fee, putting the private owners of Bear Mountain in hot water.
Initial Plans
Bear Mountain property owners, with developers Ecoasis, began planning to implement a trail network program in 2021, a feature that they stated would help direct the flow of trail use for non-residents and non-customers accessing the property.
Initially, the group released a newsletter, telling residents it was a way to increase safety on private property. While the plan was announced, Covid put a stop to the process, and locals heard nothing for months.
“We saw the article, and I was like ‘Oh yeah, have fun enforcing that’—and then it kind of went away,” says Falconer.
Then two weeks ago, without any warning, trail visitors were told to drive to the activity centre to pay a $45 fee for non-residents and customers to access the property.
Quiet implementations
Bear Mountain has not released a formal announcement since the implementation of the fee. While visitors can call the Bear Mountain activity centre to ask questions, the small details, reasonings, and concerns locals have are not being addressed.
“I have emailed Bear Mountain’s activity centre several times to get more information, but no response back—I believe they may be trying to quietly implement this without media attention,” says Keri Hobbs, a local in the area.
An employee from the activity centre said the waivers were implemented on May 23. According to Bear Mountain, individuals are not paying a fee, but rather signing a waiver in order to access the trails and the activity centre.

The only information on pricing is available on the Bear Mountain website, and is not easily accessible or viewable unless you are aware of the fee.
While Bear Mountain states the reasoning behind the fee is to be aware of who is on the property, locals who use the trail daily to access neighbourhoods on the property say $45-per-day is a steep price to pay.
Frustrated locals
Residents around the area have not only been frustrated by the price, but also by the definitions of the property. Bear Mountain has been unclear as to how it defines its borders.
“The borders kind of go in and out, so people are crossing a fair amount,” says Falconer. “I'm a little disappointed in what they're doing—we're a really small community down here, and there's only a couple of us that really do access the trail.”

Views from Mount Finlayson. Photo: Keri Hobbs
The lack of border-definition has also given certain communities benefits, a frustrating matter when locals like Falconer and Hobbs, who access the trails consistently, get nothing.
“Bear Mountain also states there are discounts for Langford residents to their property,” says Hobbs. “Bear Mountain property is partly in the Highlands District as well, but [there is] no mention of Highlands residents discounts.”
“They're picking and choosing who can be on it — you can't just give half the people up,” says Falconer. “I just want to be able to access the trail without having to pay for it.”
Motions for change
With all of the current tension, many locals are looking towards the City of Langford for help—while the city has no jurisdiction over private property, the cry for help was heard by council members who decided to put forward a motion to secure public access to parkland on Bear Mountain.
On June 5, Councillor Keith Yacucha and Councillor Kimberley Guiry tabled a notice of motion to explore all legal options to define and secure public access over privately owned property; the motion will be debated on June 19.
It was great to work with @kimberleyguiry on crafting this notice of motion.
Heard clear from the community that what was happening around access to the provincial park was unacceptable. This allows us to explore options to restore public access.
— Keith Yacucha (@KeithYacucha)
4:42 AM • Jun 6, 2023
Currently, people can access Mount Finlayson through Goldstream Park for free, but this is not a permanent solution for residents in the area.
“We cannot influence the landowner, but what we can do is ensure we have different ways to access the trails,” said Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman, while announcing funding into the BC Parks Foundation on June 2.
Locals are looking forward to the motion, as they hope to come to an agreement with Bear Mountain soon.
“Why keep local residents from coming to Bear Mountain? Yes we use their trails, and perhaps a small fee would be okay, however making things difficult for locals, especially neighbours of Bear Mountain, will create bad relationships,” says Hobbs. “[That] means not spending our money on their facilities, eating in their restaurants, and supporting retail on the Mountain.”
Ecoasis and Bear Mountain did not respond to requests for comment.