Saint John’s ice rental rates are going up by 2.5 per cent to cover the rising cost of operating and maintaining its four aging arenas.
Common Council approved the increase at last week’s meeting, but not everyone is happy with it.
Coun. Ray Strowbridge says it’s a big jump on top of last year’s four per cent increase, which included a two per cent HST adjustment.
“Forgive me, but that seems outrageous,” says Strowbridge. “I don’t know if I can swallow that.”
The exception is the pre-prime rate, which will drop by $16 an hour to increase usage during those periods.
Small increases better than larger ones
Coun. Gary Sullivan, who is past president of Saint John Youth Minor Hockey, says these small increases are easier for hockey organizations to swallow.
“What really hurts is if we did nothing for five or six years and then had to go do a 10, 15, 20 per cent jump to catch up,” says Sullivan.
Sullivan says the big fear is if council ever eliminated the youth subsidies, which he says would drastically affect registrations.
The city’s Tim O’Reilly says the new rates are adjusted for inflation and are similar to other rinks in the region, adding that taxpayers still bear the largest burden of costs.
Council endorses capital reserve for rink replacement
Council has also endorsed the creation of a capital reserve to save money for the replacement of the arenas, which O’Reilly says only have about 10 years of life left in them.
“One of the things I worry about honestly is at some point one of our four rinks we’re going to have to shut down and that’s kind of weighing on me, so we have to find a way to replace those,” he says.
Plan SJ talks about replacing the arenas with two twin-pad arenas or a four-plex arena.
O’Reilly says they’re only recommending minimum to moderate capital investment at the rinks so they can use that money for replacing them instead.
