Ongoing IT issue postpones some Parks Canada reservations

A Parks Canada logo is pictured in Banff, Thursday, May 15, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Parks Canada announced that all reservation launches scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed amid a technical outage that’s impacting its website.

“There is an IT outage affecting some government of Canada services, including Parks Canada,” the department wrote on its reservation webpage Wednesday.

“To ensure fair access for all, today’s reservations have been postponed to another day.”

Wednesday’s update came days after Parks Canada postponed all reservation launches on Jan. 16 and 19 until later dates, as its website was “experiencing technical issues that (were) not related to system volume” last week.

Parks Canada’s online reservation system allows people to join a queue to reserve campsites and park access months in advance of the busy summer season. Many parks are in high demand, and reservations often fill up within hours.

On Wednesday, reservations were set to open for Alberta’s Waterton Lakes National Park, Elk Island National Park and Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site.

Reservations were also scheduled to open for Wood Buffalo National Park, the largest in Canada, encompassing much of northeastern Alberta and a southern portion of the Northwest Territories.

On its Facebook page, Parks Canada said that for the time being, only Wednesday’s scheduled reservation launches have been impacted by the outage.

Thursday’s 10 a.m. EST reservation launch for backcountry camping at Lake O’Hara in B.C.’s Yoho National Park and Friday’s 10 a.m. EST launch for front-country campground reservations at Banff National Park are scheduled to go ahead as planned, according to Parks Canada.

“We’re working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and will provide advanced notice on the new reservation date,” the department said on its website.

“We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.”