Officials have called for a time-out to re-examine the municipality’s proposed recreational fees and charges increases.
Last year, the District of Squamish council instructed staff to examine the municipality’s recreation and park fees after they had been stagnant for more than 20 years.
But what municipal staff have come up with falls short of the net, the president of Squamish Minor Hockey (SMH), Derek Cranfield told council earlier this month. Two-hundred-and-thirty families are involved in the club and more than 100 volunteers. Yet municipal staff did not consult with the largest ice user group in Squamish about the increases, Cranfield told council early this month.
The Parks and Recreation Master Plan Community Survey indicated that the preferred method of paying for new or improved facilities is through user fees. However, the ice arena, which was constructed in 1976, is “living on borrowed time,” SMH vice president Stephen Fryer said. There are no scheduled upgrades to the rink until 2016.
SMH currently dishes out $75,000 to pay for its ice time, Fryer said, noting that does not include fees for women’s or men’s hockey. If the district pushed forward its new charges, that bill would jump to $88,376 over the next three years — $384.05 per player, Fryer pointed out.
While the club doesn’t want to turn the issue into an ice user verse field user debate, council did lower field users’ rates after consultation with stakeholders, Fryer noted. Squamish Youth Soccer (SYS) are looking at a $7.64 increase per participant per year and Squamish Men’s and Women’s Soccer rates are slated to jump by $2.92. Howe Sound Minor Ball would experience a $9.26 per person per year bump.
“From the outside it looks like we are funding the field,” Fryer said regarding the hockey club’s big bill.
The proposed fees are still well below the market range, the district’s director of recreational services Tim Hoskin said. The overall proposed raise is five per cent, he noted.
There’s no question Squamish recreation fees and charges need to be updated, Squamish Mayor Rob Kirkham said. But council is still receiving feedback from the community that the consultation was not effective.
“I do feel that we could have another reaching out exercise,” he said, noting staff should consider a method and the goal for the meeting before calling everyone to the table.
Staff were directed to re-engage with stakeholders before council will consider the fees and charges bylaw.
