SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The Yellowknife Women's Society has been granted a one-year reprieve on property tax for the Wade Hamer Mini-Golf course, but that came with a warning that the goodwill will end if the group doesn't get its financial house in order.

The Wade Hamer mini-golf course has been operated by the Yellowknife Women's Society since 2006. - Terrence McEachern/NNSL photo

"The way (the mini-golf facility) is being run now, it will never cover its operating costs," said city councillor Bob Brooks at a city council meeting last week.

"I don't want to be throwing good money after bad if we know that something is absolutely unsustainable. But right now with the information that we have I can't in all good conscience allow this to go on for anymore than one year."

The Yellowknife Women's Society, a registered charitable organization which, among other projects, also runs the Centre for Northern Families, leased the mini-golf course in 2006 with an aim to provide inexpensive recreational activities for children from low-income families.

But the lease has come with a hefty price. According to a Sept. 27 memorandum submitted to council, the society pays $5,261.84 a year in commercial property taxes for the 3,700 square-metre mini-golf course located on Franklin Avenue by Ruth Inch Memorial Pool, which has an assessed value of $274,770. Revenue from the mini-golf totalled $5,731 in 2008, according to a letter sent to the city by executive director Arlene Hache on Sept. 17, while staffing the facility cost the society $5,000.

"The operation has experienced a slight financial loss each year, and the society has not been able to access any other funding to support it. The (women's society) itself suffered an operational loss of $26,074 in 2008," stated the memorandum.

City administration recommended that council should waive "property taxes until the mini-golf facility can generate sufficient revenues to cover all the expenses required to run the facility."

Brooks took exception to this recommendation, and instead suggested an "amendment to the amendment" in that the society be given the property tax exemption for just one year, and must also provide council and city administration with a business plan on how it intends to reverse its losses.

Coun. David Wind saw problems with both the golf course's financial sustainability and whether the operation met the criteria for a property tax exemption by providing a municipal service.

"The difficulty for me here is that it's a real stretch to define the operation of a mini-golf facility as a municipal service. It's basically recreation and entertainment," said Wind.

Wind, along with Couns. Mark Heyck, Amanda Mallon and Shelagh Montgomery, voted against the motion to amend the bylaw for a one-year property tax exemption. Couns. Lydia Bardak, Brooks, Paul Falvo and Cory Vanthuyne voted in favour of the amendment. Mayor Gord Van Tighem broke the tie in favour of the amendment. He said he voted in favour of the amendment because of the precedent council exercises to non-profit organizations to be exempt from property taxes until they can reach financial stability.

Only Wind voted against the third and final reading of the amended bylaw.

He was said he was concerned granting a property tax exemption in this case could open the floodgates for other organizations and societies that don't meet the criteria.

"We are the gatekeepers," he said. "The more of these we approve, the more it is going to be difficult for us to control the gates."

In 2009, the women's society signed a lease extension for the mini-golf course with the city that will expire May 31, 2014.

Hache could not be reached for comment by press time.

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