Report coming

While some councillors are happy to see a report about selling city golf courses, others say the sale would be a bad idea.

The city’s three courses posted a $405,000 loss last year, the worst in eight years. Coun. Rebecca Johnson, who tabled the motion to get a report on the sale of the courses, said that brings the cost to $1.3 million over those years.

Johnson said she doesn’t consider golf a core service to the community.

"When do we stop paying for golf from the actual taxpayers themselves?" She asked.
Mayor Keith Hobbs, one of six to vote for the motion, said he’d be happy if the courses broke even, but that doesn’t seem to happen. With cities like London and Winnipeg also looking at options to turf municipal courses, the mayor said he believes it’s time the city had a report done.

"I don’t want to see us lose the golf courses but I certainly don’t want to subsidize them either," he said.

But Coun. Iain Angus believes a call for the report is history repeating itself. The veteran councillor said every council he’s sat on asks for the same report, but nothing ever changes.

Angus told council he finds it frustrating to see golf, which helps seniors stay active and benefits the entire community, go through the same motions every few years.
"It’s one of the few physical activities that they (seniors) have available to them," he said. "It would be a very severe step backward."

Coun. Mark Bentz said the city needs to evaluate the courses based on demographics.

City director of golf Tom Forsy added that the number of junior memberships has dropped from more than 500 to less than 300 since 2003.

It is those junior members Bentz believes will be filling the gap when seniors stop playing, but so far that does not appear to be happening.


"If we keep losing members we’re going to keep losing more and more money," Bentz said.

The report is expected in November.