sa国际传媒 residents want to see out-of-towners charged more to use municipalities facilities such as swimming pools and recreation centres, city councillors say.听
Councillors directed staff to keep developing details of a potential two-tier user-pay system despite some misgivings about the complexity of implementing such a scheme and uncertainties about how much money it would actually raise.听
鈥淚 will be supporting this because I believe itsa国际传媒 what our residents are looking for,鈥 Mayor Tom Dyas said during Mondaysa国际传媒 meeting.听
鈥淚 fully believe we should take a look at this,鈥 agreed Coun. Maxine DeHart. 鈥淲e got voted in by our taxpayers to give them the best value for the best services for the best piece of living at the best dollar.鈥
If eventually implemented, the scheme would see residents of neighbouring municipalities such as West sa国际传媒 and Lake Country, along with tourists, pay higher fees to use City of sa国际传媒 assets like the H2O Centre, the Rutland Y, and the upcoming $200 million rebuild of the Parkinson recreation centre.
At councilsa国际传媒 direction, staff will prepare a business case for the two-tiered user-fee scheme, with firmer figures on how much money it might generate and how it could be implemented.
鈥淭hatsa国际传媒 really key to answer the questions that have听听been raised today,鈥 said Coun. Loyal Wooldrige.听
It isn鈥檛 known when the additional report will come back to council but expectations are it could be sometime early next year.听
Councillors acknowledged there might be some disgruntlement among people who live outside sa国际传媒 to pay more to use city-owned facilities. But they also suggested it wasn鈥檛 realistic or desirable to retain the current system by which only city residents pay for the construction, upkeep and programming of expensive facilities.听
鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to be seen as the big bad sa国际传媒 thatsa国际传媒 coming down hard on our neighbouring municipalities,鈥 Coun. Mohini Singh said. 鈥淏ut on the other hand, we need the dollars to be able to support services that we鈥檙e offering our residents.鈥
Council heard from staff that an estimated 15 per cent of users of city-owned facilities are from outside sa国际传媒, though that number varies depending on building and program offered.听
Staff told council they couldn鈥檛 immediately provide an estimate on how much money the two-tier system might generate, or how it could be managed on a day-to-day basis at city facilities.听
鈥淭he jurysa国际传媒 still out on whether the benefits will outweigh the costs,鈥 said Coun. Ron Cannan. 鈥淏ut how long do we continue to subsidize the other communities? This (plan) shows respect for our local taxpayers and strengthens trust in the management of public funds.鈥
Coun. Luke Stack was opposed to continuing to study the idea of charging out-of-towners more to use city facilities. He said the proposal seemed to him to be reminiscent of U.S. President Donald Trumpsa国际传媒 imposition of steep tariffs against foreign-made products entering that country.听
鈥淲hat I don鈥檛 want to do is send a message out, that just because we can, we鈥檙e going to fund our stuff for our citizens first, and everybody else is going to be paying heavier. It just has that kind of unwelcome signal,鈥 Stack said.听
While sa国际传媒 accounts for two-thirds of the Central Okanagansa国际传媒 population, Stack noted that many thousands of out-of-towners work in sa国际传媒 and support sa国际传媒 businesses.听
鈥淲hen they鈥檙e in our city, they also shop at our stores, they go to Costco, they go to Orchard Park mall, they go to our restaurants,鈥 Stack said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e basically people who are building the strength of our city and now we鈥檇 be saying, 鈥極h yeah, but by the way, because you don鈥檛 live here, you鈥檙e going to be paying extra if you want to use our facilities鈥.鈥
