City to seek further information on Skating Club ice rental fee cut request

Timing on the ice is everything when it comes to skating, as any skater with the Prince Rupert Skating Club might be able to tell you, if you're timing is off, so is your performance.

Timing it seems might also be helpful when it comes to a request for a break on the rent at the Prince Rupert Civic Centre. And on Tuesday evening the request from the Skating Club was smack dab in the middle of some terrible timing.

The Skating Club had such a request up for consideration at Tuesday's Council session with a letter from the Club a late addition to the Council Agenda.

However as the timeline of the night would work out, their request for a break of an unspecified amount on the rent for the Civic Centre followed a fairly spirited and at times heated discussion among council members when it came to the motion of final approval to increase the fees for daily use of the Civic Centre facilities.

Mayor Brain introduced the topic, reading out the letter from the local Skating club which is looking for a reduction on the ice fees for season ending March presentation. As part of the letter, the Group highlighted the struggles that it has found in the community in these economic times, with lower enrolment and financial gaps when it comes to their fundraising efforts.

When the call to present the issue as a motion was put forward, no member of Council took on the topic, leaving it to the Mayor to introduce it, with Councillor Kinney then seconding the motion.

Councillor Thorkelson inquired as to what kind of amount the Group was looking for, however the Mayor did not provide a dollar figure, noting that what he believes the City should do is to wait to see how much the Skating Club raised and then have the city match it.

That was a suggestion that seemed to raise some concerns for her,  as she sought further clarification on just what the financial aspect of the request might be.

On that theme, Council decided to seek further information from the Skating Club as to what form of a reduction in the rental for the Civic Centre they are looking for. With plans to bring that request back to Council for further discussion at a future session.

It's not the first time that a local group has approached Council for a break on the rental of Civic facilities, similar requests have been brought up before at Council for such events as the Prince Rupert Homecoming, or Grad related events at city facilities.

However, updates on how those requests have turned out doesn't always get released through the public council sessions, leaving unknown as to what, if any form of rental reduction has been granted after the review of those requests.

The introduction of the request from the Skating Club and discussion that followed can be found on the city's Video Archive, starting at just after the 55 minute mark.




For an overall look at Tuesday's Council session see our Timeline feature here.

You can find more items related to City Council discussions on our Archive page.