The cost of recreation is going up in the City of Cold Lake.
During their regular council meeting on Tuesday, March 13, the City of Cold Lake voted unanimously to increase recreational user fees.
This five per cent jump includes facility and athletic field use, drop-in and memberships, special events, meeting rooms, and marina slip rental fees for residents of both the city and MD of Bonnyville.
Cold Lake council claims their reason for upping the cost is because of the amendments made to ID 349 funding for this year.
“We have kept the user fees flat for many years. But, because of the change in revenue to the city… we’re increasing the user fees by five per cent roughly for most sports fields, arenas, and things like that,” Mayor Craig Copeland noted.
Coun. Bob Buckle agreed that the $10-million cut back has forced council to reconsider how much they charge for various services in the community.
“Part of what’s driving some of this is the loss of funding through the ID 349. Some of those proceeds would have been used to help subsidize some of the recreation in the community,” he explained.
However, he added, it was time council revisited the issue regardless of provincial funding.
This increase will put the city on par with similar-sized communities in terms of user fees.
“Our rates, whether it’s the soccer field or the ice rink, are very competitive, if not some of the lower ones in Alberta,” expressed Copeland. “Our rates are either below or the same to other municipalities in our area.”
They’re estimating that an approximate five per cent jump across the board will bring in an additional $70,000 in revenue.
The cost adjustment won’t be the same for all services. In some cases, it could be more, or less. But, it averages out to about five per cent.
Now that the overall increase has been approved, council will revisit the age someone has to be to qualify as a senior.
A resident had expressed concern over the 60-plus considerations, and asked the city to reconsider.
“They were wondering if we would reduce the age of seniors to 55 from 60. That has been referred back to corporate priorities for further discussion,” noted Buckle. “The rational on that, is the federal government has considered 55 as a senior in some instances.”
Buckle used the Alberta 55-plus Senior Games as a prime example.
“We wanted to have a bit of an impact assessment done on that as well, which will determine whether or not council will consider it,” he continued.
