Community services sunk for four with new user and rental fees: RDCK
By Timothy Schafer Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The climbing cost of the living index has again caught the city’s community complex in a crunch, forcing it to hike user fees and rental fees for fall.
The Regional District of Central Kootenay board of directors approved a four per cent increase to all fees at the Nelson and District Community Complex.
Effective Sept. 3, the increase is based upon the March 2024 British Columbia cost of living index increase.
“Recreation services at the RDCK are funded through a combination of user fees and taxation, resulting in recreation being subsidized by the community for the benefit of the community,” read an RDCK staff report.
The hike represents an increase of 31 cents for an adult single admission, moving from $7.77 to $8.08 — $7.26 just over one year ago — while a youth admission rises by 16 cents to $4.04 ($3.88 one year ago). A child admission continues to be free, as does a golden guest (75 and over).
The new fees apply to drop-in, single-use, punch pass and time-based memberships, as well as rental rates for aquatics centres and other facilities.
Just over one year ago the RDCK raised its recreation centre prices by only 3.7 per cent (25 cents) to provide “consistency, transparency and the ability to financial performance of the services to provide better value,” said Joe Chirico, general manager of Community Services for the RDCK.
If service levels remained the same, Chirico wrote in his report to the RDCK board of directors, fees should maintain the present balance between taxation and user fees.
Icing on the cake
An interesting figure released by the RDCK was the difference user groups pay for ice rentals between Nelson, Castlegar and Creston.
Nelson paid a much higher rate for all rentals, with adult, non-profit (prime) ice rental going for $199.19 per hour, up from $182.91 per hour last year. In Castlegar the same time cost $167.75 (up from $154.04) while in Creston it was only $157.26 (from $144.41 last season).
Youth, non-profit (prime) in Nelson was hit to the tune of $126.75 per hour rental rate (from $116.39 last season), while Castlegar was $102.33 (from $93.97) and Creston was only $86.60 ($79.52).
