SUNDRE – The municipal council recently debated whether to approve funding requests from both the Sundre & District Chamber of Commerce as well as the Sundre & District Aquatic Society.
Despite not granting the full amounts sought by the groups, council nevertheless arrived at a compromise after discussing the requests during the regular May 30 meeting.
In addition to the municipality’s annual Grants to Organizations program that through an application review process supports numerous local groups every year, council also approves funding for seven organizations in the community. This year, the municipality received requests for additional funding from two out of the seven groups; the chamber of commerce and the aquatic society, reads background information in the meeting’s agenda package.
The chamber was asking to increase the municipality’s annual funding allotment to $20,000 from $15,000 to help cover the expenses related to operating the Visitor Information Centre, as well as the aquatic society’s ask for council to consider increasing the municipality’s contribution to help address mounting maintenance costs.
In a letter dated Nov. 10, 2022 and co-signed by Aquaplex manager Kari McQuaid and Aquatic Society president Doug Korek, council was reminded the indoor pool and fitness centre is the only recreational facility in Sundre that is open year-round.
Further, fundraising options are limited as the organization is governed by the Society’s Act and is technically not a non-profit and thus cannot issue tax receipts for donations, reads part of the letter, adding current contributions from the Town of Sundre and Mountain View County amount to roughly half of the society’s revenue.
“We have compared our admissions to those of the surrounding towns, and they are similar,” reads a portion of the two-page letter. “However, the board is contemplating an admission review since the costs to run the facility only increase.”
But the society is not inclined to increase the cost of swimming lessons in order to remain competitive with other facilities in the region. Additionally, the society would ideally aspire to pay the staff more.
“Our staff are underpaid. We recently did a wage survey of the other pools in the area – Olds, Didsbury, Rocky Mountain House, and Innisfail – and our wages are much lower,” reads the letter.
“These neighbouring facilities also offer their employees health benefits and pension packages, which we do not, and we cannot.”
To offer wages more competitive with other facilities in the area in an effort to retain staff, the society would need to find another roughly $20,000 to $25,000 in funding. Additionally, ongoing maintenance issues including the out-of-service hot tub that no longer meets Alberta Health standards continue to rack up, they wrote.
“We are waiting for the engineers to complete the design for the basin upgrade,” reads their letter, adding that expense could cost more than $75,000.
“Please consider increasing the amount of funding that is allocated to the Sundre Aquaplex,” wrote McQuaid and Korek without including a specific, sought-after amount.
Council was not prepared to approve either request in full, but eventually arrived at a compromise for both. There was a consensus to allocate some funding to the chamber for one year with further direction to meet with the group’s board to discuss other options moving forward, said Warnock.
Council unanimously approved a motion by Coun. Connie Anderson to provide the chamber with a funding boost of $4,500 for 2023 as well as a follow-up motion by Coun. Chris Vardas directing administration to coordinate with the chamber’s board to discuss future funding of the Visitor Information Centre with a report to come back to council during the fall workshop.
Council’s decision for the Aquaplex, however, was not quite so cut and dry. Even though council was not prepared to approve the kind of funding the society might have been hoping for, a slim majority of council felt at least some funding was warranted.
“There was a lot of discussion on that one as to how to go forward because there was the talk about how it was supposed to be designed and run independently and not come to the town for money,” the mayor said. “But we know they’re struggling.”
Coun. Marr’s motion to approve additional funding in the amount of $5,000 for the Aquaplex for the 2023 carried.
“That motion barely carried,” said Warnock, adding when asked that he supported it.
As it has been about a few years since the funding agreements were revised, the time has arguably arrived for another review, he said.
“The annual funding for the chamber and the Aquaplex definitely needs to be looked at,” the mayor said.
But with the municipality regularly receiving requests either for increased recurring funding contributions or one-time boosts, council must be cautious, he added.
“We have to be careful,” he said. “We want to support where we can, but we cannot put all of the burden on our taxpayers; we’re supposed to be responsible to them as well.”
