Summer Camp Registration Just Dropped 17% — and It's Not About Kids Losing Interest

Overnight summer camps across Canada are reporting registration down as much as 17% compared to last year, as families cite the rising cost of living as the reason their kids are staying home this summer instead of heading to camp.

Why You Should Care

This is the kind of story that never makes a splashy headline but quietly says a lot about how squeezed household budgets actually are right now. Camp operators describe it plainly: recreation is one of the first line items to go when inflation tightens a family's budget, and requests for financial assistance have more than doubled this year at some camps. If you're a parent weighing whether camp fits the budget this summer, or a camp operator watching enrolment slide, this is confirmation that you're far from alone in that calculation.

Complex to Simple

Think of a family budget like a game of Jenga — as costs for groceries, gas, and housing keep rising, something has to be pulled from lower down in the stack to keep the tower standing. Camp, unlike rent or food, is what economists call a "discretionary" expense — not essential to survival, which makes it one of the first blocks families pull out when the tower starts wobbling, even though everyone involved knows it's a genuinely valuable experience for kids.

What Both Sides Are Saying

Camp operators, including Camp Valaqua's director in Alberta, describe raising fees modestly to offset their own rising operating costs, while acknowledging that's exactly what's pricing out the families they most want to serve. Advocacy groups like the Canadian Camps Association frame this as a policy gap, pointing out that federal childcare tax deductions cap overnight camp expenses at levels — as low as $125 to $275 a week — that don't reflect what camp actually costs, and are pushing Ottawa to update the rules.

What's Next

Watch whether the Canadian Camps Association's pre-budget submission gains any traction with the federal government this fall — a change to how camp expenses are treated for tax purposes could meaningfully shift next summer's numbers, but there's no indication yet that Ottawa is prioritizing it.