Town council has approved a new fee rate structure for organizers of the annual Tournament of Champions Novice/Atom Hockey Tournament.
The tourney, which will feature 96 teams from across Western Canada and the Northwest Territories, will be held March 25 to 27 and will be jointly hosted by Innisfail, Ponoka and Lacombe.
In his report to council, Henry Wong, the town's director of community services, said each community's twin facility will host 32 teams over the weekend, using about 75 hours of ice time over both ice surfaces.
Wong said a preliminary meeting was held with tourney organizers last November to review the rates. He said the organizers were advised facility ice rates – a flat rate of $5,846 (including GST) – had been consistent for the past four years, and with rising costs in utilities and staffing, an increase would have to be considered.
Wong's report said rates from Lacombe and Ponoka were looked at to guide the town with a new agreement with tourney organizers.
He recommended to council a new three-year agreement with escalating rates based on a minimum usage of 75 hours. Wong proposed the hourly rate would increase $5 per hour each year for the duration of the agreement, with an additional $25 an hour added to the hourly rate for all tournament ice rentals that take place on statutory holidays.
For this year's tournament, Wong proposed an $85 an hour rate (plus GST) that calculated total revenues of about $7,025. This would increase to $95 an hour for 2018, with total revenues of about $7,481.25.
Council approved Wong's recommendation and a written notice of the decision is being forwarded to tournament organizers.
Amended agreement for planning services
The town has agreed to amend an agreement for services with its outside planning service.
Town council was told at its regular meeting on Jan. 11 that the current three-year agreement was signed with Parkland Community Planning Services (PCPS) in 2014.
After hearing a presentation from Helen Dietz, the town's chief administrative officer, council approved the recommendation to amend its agreement with PCPS.
The 2014 agreement set out hourly rates for a planner at $120 an hour, and $90 an hour for a planning technician. Council was told the annual contribution to PCPS for the agreement was $85,320, an amount that has been approved in the 2016 budget.
Dietz told council through her report that between 2007 and 2012 about 2,100 hours of planner time, along with 1,300 hours of planning technician time was provided to the town.
However, council was told PCPS is now “struggling” to balance annual budgets at the current rates and is regularly experiencing deficits. As a result, a new funding formula was created for PCPS last year that is considered to be more equitable for each participating community and will improve the organization's current and future finances.
Council was told a resolution was passed at the organization's recent annual general meeting to increase rates to $150 an hour for a planner and to $95 an hour for a planning technician.
Dietz told council she was anticipating the increases, and while the amended agreement will mean less hours from PCPS, the town will still be able to move forward with all necessary planning work it intended to do in 2016.
