The city has two reasons why it’s proposing hikes to 10 of its community services fees, says the man in charge of setting the price.
Community services manager Greg Alexander on Friday said the increases, such as a three per cent jump in city golf course memberships and a 15 per cent increase for cabin rentals and RV site admissions at Chippewa, are necessary to keep pace with the private sector
And, he added, the city is obligated to recover a certain percentage of expenses, which rise every year because of increased staff costs and inflation.
"One is to stay within marketplaces that we’re in competition with other people and the second is just to make sure that our cost-recovery model that we have with the city is in play and that we can cover an appropriate percentage of our costs," Alexander said Friday morning.
Alexander said the city tries it’s best to make community services as affordable and accessible as possible, but without minimum increases, the rising costs of those services would most likely be passed on to the taxpayer.
"If we do not have an increase and our expenses go up of course that’s a larger deficit to the city and so therefore that has to be absorbed somewhere and normally is absorbed through the tax base," said Alexander.
Because private sector competition is much more expensive for events such as weddings, Alexander said the proposed 15 per cent increase at Chippewa was necessary. Additional security at the park was also needed he said.
"We’re thinking that if we raise the price a little bit beyond the inflation rate we can add some security and make the experience for the people that are out there a little more pleasant," said Alexander.
Some costs for community services such as hockey arenas are staying the same though said Alexander. Keeping a zero-based budget was difficult for his department but Alexander said he thinks the city will be in good shape with its community services.
"As long as it’s a year where things go as predicted we should be in pretty good shape," he said.
