Vernon adjusting its recreation admission fees

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The refined proposed admission fees for Vernon’s recreation facilities (Image Credit: City of Vernon)

New fee structure

Vernon adjusting its recreation admission fees

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Matt Faucher, Vernon’s acting director of Recreation, Culture & Community Services, said these changes should help increase usership, which in turn would eventually lead to increased revenues.

“We’re aiming this at getting as many people into actively using the Active Living Centre, so that way we can support [recreation operation] sustainability moving forward,” Faucher explained at Monday’s meeting.

The acting director added the existing non-resident fees were twice that of residents and seemed to be prohibitive to generating use from people outside the community.

He also stated these fees and usership figures could be evaluated over the coming months and, depending on those findings, the admission fees could be restructured again. 

Council also noted that the increased fees could act as a catalyst for other communities to take action and come into a recreation cost-sharing agreement with the city.

City council voted in favour of these changes at Monday’s meeting.

Staff was directed to incorporate the changes into an amendment of the Recreation and Parks Services fees and charges, which will be brought forward for consideration at a future meeting so they could be implemented ahead of the ALC opening.

A man in attendance with two small children did stand up later in the meeting and yelled at council, “If you think people are going to be able to pay to go to a rec centre, do you know how much that’s going to cost a family of four to go to a rec centre we already pay taxes on? You’re supposed to benefit our citizens, our businesses, our environment, and that’s not what’s going on here.”

After his outburst, the man and the children left the council chambers without issue.