Residents waiting to find out how much it will cost to use the new Barrhead Regional Aquatic Centre will have to wait a little longer.
Although Barrhead town council, in large part, agreed with the suggested fee structure administration brought to the March 14 meeting for the soon to be opened aquatic centre, councillors decided it still needed to be tweaked.
Barrhead chief administrative officer, Martin Taylor said, parks and recreation along with the finance and administration departments came up with the fee structure based upon a number of factors.
“It’s not an exact science,” he said, adding they started with the old pool’s fee structure. “We then looked at our two nearest neighbours that have pool facilities, Whitecourt and Westlock, put them together and came out with an average.”
Taylor added, staff then rounded the numbers up to the nearest dollar or half dollar, with a few exceptions, noting that any fee structure council decided on would be good for six months. During its Feb. 28 meeting, council decided any changes to recreation department fees would coincide with the start of each new year, Jan. 1. The aquatic centre is expected to open sometime in the spring, or summer, with a tentative July 1 grand opening date.
Mayor Gerry St. Pierre and Coun. Leslie Penny asked if any other facilities, such as those in St. Albert, were taken into consideration before coming up with the rates.
Taylor said no, as Westlock and Whitecourt would be in direct competition for users so staff decided to use their rates.
Penny noted they had to be careful when making comparisons with other facilities.
“We have to compare apples to apples,” she said, noting many facilities, such as Whitecourt are multi-use facilities. “Not only do you get the swimming area, but you get the use of the walking track, fitness facility and skating rink.”
She also added, in her opinion, the suggested rates were too low, especially those for seniors. An annual pass for seniors (65 plus) is proposed at $337, suggesting $400.
St. Pierre agreed, saying while the proposed fees were in the right range, he felt some of them could be increased slightly.
He added, when former recreation department director, Sue Keenan, released a tentative-fee structure and budget in August 2015, it was with the understanding that the town would come as close to the 50 per cent cost recovery as possible.
“In many communities they try to get 100 per cent of their cost recovery in their adult rates,” St. Pierre said, adding, he agreed with this strategy. “We should encourage our youth to use this facility as much as possible. As a rule, I think most adults can afford an extra 50 cents a visit.”
The daily rate for adults is pegged at $7.50 and $5.30 for youths while annual passes are proposed at $474 (adults) and $308 (youths).
St. Pierre added that he would err on the high side when setting the rates.
“I have no problem being five to 10 per cent higher than Westlock. We will have a much better facility and in reality that means only a few cents,” he said. “And anything we can do to show the county that we are doing all that we can to mitigate the deficit is good.”
In the past, many county councillors have stated that recreation users are not paying enough to cover the true cost of operating the facilities. The town believes this is one of the obstacles that has hindered the municipalities’ ability to come up with, what is in the town’s opinion, to be a more equitable recreation funding agreement.
Under the current agreement, which expires in October, the County of Barrhead contributes, at itsdiscretion, an amount towards recreation costs of recreation facilities and programs used by residents of both municipalities.
He also noted the town contributes a significant amount to Barrhead and District FCSS which has programs available to help people that cannot afford to pay for recreation programming.
Penny agreed, adding she believed Barrhead Cares has similar programs and that there were other ways to help low income users, such as providing multi-use passes for FCSS to distribute when needed.
Although, the county hasn’t released how much it will contribute towards the aquatic centre’s operation, the town expects it will be less than 20 per cent.
Coun. Ryan Warehime said he would like to see more savings for multiple user packs and annual passes.
“I also think the family rate of $1,300 a year is too high. If you take your typical family of four, you would have to go 50 times to break even,” he said, adding as a person with a young family he would think twice before buying an annual family pass.
Warehime and Coun. Don Smith also said more thinking needs to be done when it comes to special use of the facility.
“I’m not sure if you should be able to shut down the pool for a private function. We have potentially a seven-days-a-week facility for the entire community, not for a private function, unless it’s after normal operating hours,” he said.
Warehime said this area is something council needs to decide, and not leave up to administration.
Discussion ended with administration saying that a revised rate schedule will be presented to council for consideration at a future meeting.
