Question:
Parks Canada prepared the following budget for one of its national parks for 2002:
Revenue from fees $5,000,000
Variable costs (miscellaneous) 500,000
Contribution margin $4,500,000
Fixed costs (miscellaneous) 4,500,000
Operating income $ 0
The fees were based on an average of 50,000 vehicle-admission days (vehicles multiplied by number of days in the park) per week for the 20-week session, multiplied by average entry and other fees of $5 per vehicle-admission day.
The season was booming for the first four weeks. However, there were major forest fires during the fifth week. A large percentage of the park was scarred by the fires. As a result, the number of visitors dropped sharply during the remainder of the season.
Total revenue fell $1 million short of the original budget. Moreover, extra firefighters had to be hired at a cost of $360,000. The latter was regarded as a fixed cost.
Prepare a columnar summary of performance, showing the original (static) budget, sales volume variances, flexible-budget variances, and actual results.