Courtenay council is advocating for more equitable contributions from all jurisdictions for recreation and cultural facilities in the Valley.
In October 2008, the Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD) voted to engage a facilitator to conduct a study to discuss and recommend options for regional recreation and cultural facilities service and to review the current recreation grants service.
Following committee meetings and work with a consultant, a draft report was presented to the CVRD at the Nov. 12 board meeting. The board voted to refer the draft report to member municipalities for their comments.
“Currently, cultural and recreation facilities are supported through a combination of taxation and user fees, with only the Comox Valley Exhibition Grounds and the Comox Valley Sports and Aquatic Centre being jointly funded by all property owners within the Comox Valley,” Randy Wiwchar, Courtenay’s director of community services, wrote in his report to council.
“The question becomes how to determine who benefits from having regional facilities; if the Comox Valley benefits as a whole, then cost sharing becomes a reasonable expectation. To support the health and wellness of communities throughout the region, and to do so in a way that is fair, open, transparent and consistent, the region would be well served by a framework that uses principles to define the level of funding for different categories of public recreation and cultural facilities.”
During Tuesday’s council meeting, councillors agreed to the guiding principles presented, which provide a rationale for the CVRD to fund facilities on a regional basis.
As well, council agreed in principle to the facility definitions as presented but noted that the steering committee needs to reaffirm usage benchmarks — percentage draw of users from the region and the magnitude of usage — to ensure the numbers established are both fair and feasible.
Thirdly, council agreed in principle to the level of investment for each funding category, with the proviso that the steering committee further investigates the financial implications of the funding formula.
“It makes sense for Courtenay,” said Wiwchar. “It’s a good deal for Courtenay because currently Courtenay’s paying for all of our facilities ourself, and to get any equitable payment back from the CVRD would be a huge bonus for us, especially our cultural facilities which we’re paying a lion’s share on most of those facilities.”
Council also agreed that those facilities without accurate use data will not be included in the final framework and will require the submission of accurate usage data on an annual basis to receive consideration for funding.
Council agreed that staff prepare an implementation plan for establishing a regional/cultural service based on the principles and recommendations of the report.
Finally, council agreed that a decision-making framework and process be developed to determine future regional facilities.
“This report deals with existing facilities; there really isn’t a game plan for long-term facilities,” said Wiwchar. “There’s talk about curling rinks and new theatres and artificial turf fields and new arenas and exhibition grounds ... before any of those start construction, there should be solid discussion on those as to whether they’re regional and who’s paying for them.”
It is not the intent to have the facilities which are owned by each municipality to be operated by the CVRD, explained Wiwchar.
“Those facilities, their operations wouldn’t change other than they would receive funding from the RD,” he said.
Councillors were supportive of regionalization.
“I see great benefit here in basically breaking these things down into people who use them help fund them, and that would be the fairest thing for all the taxpayers involved,” said Coun. Larry Jangula.
writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com