Local private golf course owners believe the city should sell at least one municipally-owned course.
“They’re not making any money. They’re not providing services that the private sector’s not already providing. I don’t think they have any reason to be there,” said Michael Komar, owner of Dragon Hills Golf Course.
The city currently owns and operates Chapples, Strathcona and Municipal Golf Courses. The question of whether to sell any, or all, of the courses is up for discussion at Monday’s council meeting.
Komar said he believes the city should sell at least one, if not two, of the courses.
The golf business has been dwindling the past few years in Thunder Bay and Komar, who entered the business with the three city courses already well-established, believes the downturn is because of the number of jobs lost in the city through the death of the forest industry.
“There’s no reason they should be subsidizing those golf courses,” he said, adding they’ve lost too much money in the past few years and if the city were to sell any of the properties, they would make future money from property taxes – except the likeliest candidate, Municipal, which resides in the community of Oliver Paipoonge.
“If the city gets out of those golf courses, it will help us in the private industry,” Komar said. “The private golf courses spend a lot of money in the city. We provide jobs. We pay property taxes.”
From a business point of view, the best course of action would be to sell at least one of the municipally owned courses, said Northern Lights Golf Complex owner Gerald Breukelman.
“It’s probably a good idea for them to get out of (the business). They’re losing too much money,” he said.
However, Breukelman doesn’t believe it’s the best move for the city to sell all three courses, stating that city residents like children and seniors should have activities they can participate in at a reasonable cost.
“Whether than means the city has to subsidize for those people, I don’t have the answer to that,” he said. “You can’t just go out and sell everything because it’s losing money. The city does have to subsidize some things for the public whether it be rinks, waterfront, complex. But do they need all three golf courses? Maybe not.”
But whatever happens at Monday’s meeting, Breukelman wants the city to make up their mind on the issue once and for all.
“They’ve been talking about it for the last three, four years. It’s either do something or don’t do something or drop it because I think the public and the rest of us in the golf business are getting tired of hearing it,” he said.
The frustration over council’s indecisiveness on the issue was echoed by Centennial Golf Course owner Robert Polischuk.
“I do hope the city moves a little faster in the decision-making process because there is difficulty being incurred by other golf courses due to the oversupply,” he said.
Polischuk thinks the city should look at selling Strathcona and Municipal, but keep Chapples because of its location and multi-service facilities.
“As for as Municipal, that is a course that’s outside of the city,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to have a big effect on a number of golfers.”
“In reality the city will never make a profit or break even with golfing,” he said, citing high operation and service costs as the cause of the problem.
“You can’t keep increasing prices,” Polischuk added, noting it will soon become too expensive for the average person to play at the city-owned courses.
Coun. Andrew Foulds, who has said he opposes the sale or closure of any of the courses – city administration is recommending Muncipal operate for one more year before being closed and sold – also suggested closing the courses will have little or no impact on ratepayers.
According to figures collected by Coun. Paul Pugh, which Foulds forwarded to tbnewswatch.com, the $100,000 the city would save from closing Municipal would represent an annual savings of about $1.14 per taxpayer, based on the city’s proposed $225-million 2012 budget.
Closing all three would increase that figure to $6.26.
Follow Jodi Lundmark on Twitter: @JodiL_reporter
