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City hikes rental fees Goal is to become less reliant on taxes to pay for facilities, says mayorLaura Busch Northern News Services Published Monday, Aug 27, 2012
The city is looking to recoup more of its funding for certain recreational facilities with a gradual increase in user fees, says Mayor Gord Van Tighem. Starting Sept. 1, rentals fees for the Multiplex, Fieldhouse, Ruth Inch Pool and the library will increase by three per cent, along with rental fees for all city parks, school fields and city-owned baseball diamonds. Arena and pool advertising fees are also scheduled to increase. Prime time adult ice rentals, for example will now, cost $147.50 an hour, up from $143.25 an hour, while renting the Sir John Franklin High School gym will cost $35.25 for 50 minutes, up from $34.50. These hikes specifically target facilities that increase in activity at this time of year, said Van Tighem and also target services that not all Yellowknifers use. "You have certain things in the city that everybody uses, and so they're supported to a greater extent by tax revenue because they're paid for by everybody and they're used by everybody," said Van Tighem. "But there are other things that are only used by a few people." The city is trying to increase the amount of money it recovers through user fees, said Van Tighem, which is necessary for balancing the books and being able to afford further facilities and maintenance. Currently, the city recovers about 40 per cent of the money it spends on these facilities and are working to get that figure up to 46 per cent, said Van Tighem. The city recouped $25.5 million from user fees in 2010 but was only forecast to collect $21.5 million for 2011; the city budgeted user fee revenues of $23.4 million for this year compared to $23.2 million in property taxes. Another way to recoup more of the costs of these facilities would be to focus on using the spaces more throughout the year, he said. While it is only a three per cent increase, it could have the effect of making recreational programs, that are already quite expensive, unaffordable to some families, said one youth hockey coach, who asked not to be named due to conflicts with his day job. "It's very difficult already for parents to pay for the cost of ice and the cost of hockey registration, and increases certainly wouldn't help anyone's cause," said the coach. "You add to that, fundraising is very difficult and becoming increasingly difficult because there just seems to be less money around, and now we're having families with less available money and less available funds raised, and adding any extra ice time becomes more difficult." Paying higher fees, however, is not unwelcome news to all it will affect. When the outdoor field user groups held their annual meeting this past spring, they unanimously asked for their rates to be increased so that the city is able to better maintain its outdoor spaces, said Ryan Fequet, president of NWT Soccer. Specifically, the group asked that a usage-based fee be implemented instead of the current annual fee for using the city's outdoor recreational fields. "They're doing the best with what they've got," said Fequet. "We recognize that and we'd like to see it be a little more commensurate." Not all fees are going up. Single admission and monthly fees for flexi-passes to use city facilities are going up but the fee for multi-month passes are going down. A three-month youth pass, for example, is going down $2 to $91.75. Van Tighem said the reasoning behind that is two-fold: to encourage more people to use city facilities and also to reduce the cost of printing passes. "There is a savings in doing it longer term, and it encourages people to make a commitment," said Van Tighem.
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