Grey Highlands council has reinstated arena rate discounts for local groups that book more than 50 hours of ice time a year.
At its meeting on April 3, council voted unanimously to bring back a 20 per cent discount on arena rentals for local minor sports groups. The decision reversed an earlier move by council to put an end to discounts for local groups renting ice time in large blocks. The groups would have been charged the standard rate of $132 per hour of ice time.
Grey Highlands staff had recommended the discounts continue, as they are fairly standard in the arena world.
The elimination of the discounts prompted backlash across Grey Highlands from minor sports groups that use the municipality’s four arenas for hundreds of hours per year. Members of council referred to receiving many passionate emails about the issue in the two weeks since the decision.
The change means that local groups booking more than 50 hours of ice time will pay a discounted rate of $119.33 per hour. This is an increase from the previous discounted rate of $105 per hour (both figures include HST).
At the meeting, council was taken to task by volunteers from local minor sports groups over the decision to end arena discounts for local groups booking more than 50 hours. The volunteers spoke to council during the open forum portion of the meeting before council’s vote to reinstate the discounts.
“This decision is showing a complete lack of interest in caring about anything but the bottom line,” said Lesley Priddle, a volunteer with various groups that use the Osprey arena in Feversham. “This affects everyone in our community.”
Priddle said the change would have meant a $44 per hour increase for minor sports groups using the Osprey arena.
“It’s quite simply outrageous,” she said. “Were you aware of the consequences?”
She said the change could have led to a $200 increase per child in Osprey. She said this past season, minor hockey in Osprey had 10 teams with 116 children registered and they expect 130 children next year.
“Your decision has a direct effect on all our families involved,” she said. “Osprey minor hockey has prided itself on keeping registration at a reasonable cost.”
Two other speakers also spoke about the matter and urged council to back off on the change.
“This increase has the potential to provide a way to back door close our arenas,” said Angela Teeter, a volunteer with a number of Markdale recreation organizations. “We need to keep the rental rates affordable.”
Carolina D’Andrea also spoke to council and said her family has two boys in Osprey minor hockey and they would have faced a $400 increase to registration costs due to the changes. D’Andrea said she moved to Grey Highlands three years ago from Collingwood and has been amazed by the community support for minor sports.
“Osprey minor hockey has been nothing short of incredible. We have something special here,” said D’Andrea. “An increase to the cost of hockey would put that tremendously at risk. The word disappointing comes to mind.”
When it came time to vote on the bylaw setting the new rates, it was clear members of council were having second thoughts about eliminating the 20 per cent discount.
After a significant discussion about the issue, Mayor Paul McQueen moved an amendment to the bylaw to bring back the 20 per cent discount for the coming season. McQueen said the increase coming all at once wasn’t fair to the minor sports groups and that council should take a step back and have a larger conversation with all the local user groups about the situation.
“All of the sudden - it’s a big hit,” said McQueen. “This gives us an opportunity to have a bigger dive into the whole issue.”
Coun. Joel Loughead thanked members of the community for making their thoughts known to council about the issue.
“It really helps us to craft good decision making at this table,” he said. “We’ve heard loud and clear this rate jump is too big, too fast.”
