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| City Council has approved a new policy of prioritization for use of the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre and other civic recreational facilities and fields |
A presentation on Monday evening for Prince Rupert City Council provided a glimpse of what will be the new policy for allocation of recreation facilities in the city, as the Director of Recreation and Community Services took the council members through some of the process that led to the new prioritization policy,
David Geronazzo provided the background to the work over the last six months that led to new policy recommendations, he and Councillor Wade Niesh who was also involved with the oversight on the changes outlined how the new Recreation Policy recognizes that there is limited space for recreation centre and filed use, with the need for more transparent guidelines along with a priority table to ensure fairness in the allocation.
The main focus for the committee that compiled the new guidelines was to ensure that the youth of the city remained the top priority when it comes to allocation of time and resources.
"We recognize that there is need for multiple types of organizations in the community to access the space, all we are doing in this table is to ensure that the current practice that we already follow in the community, is followed with the approval of Council ... It won't have an effect on the current way that we allocate adult rentals, it just means that we are going to set aside time in the schedule of the different facilities and areas to prioritize youth and ensure that they have space during that prime time to access the facility in a way that will be appropriate for each of those facilities" -- Director of Recreation and Community Services David Geronazzo on the new policy for access to civic facilities.
The Report to Council which is available from the City's Agenda for Monday evening provided a listing of the six level priority table.
The new policy will be in effect for the following City operated facilities and fields.
Two council members had comments or concerns about the new policy prioritization plan, with Councillor Nick Adey inquiring about what criteria the City would use in determining the nature of local events when it comes to narrow interest or controversy.
He was advised by the Recreation Director that the existing definition of local events would be used and it does not set one local organization against another and focuses on anything with a permanent address in the community that requires the use of the facility for a full day.
Councillor Niesh added that would be along the lines of the Big groups that require the civic centre for extended periods of time, making note of the Craft Fair, or the All Native Basketball tournament.
Councillor Cunningham had questions about the priority table and noted that he had concerns that the local Senior Mens Hockey League and women's hockey program would be impacted by the way the priority table was set up.
"What I am getting at is, when I was sitting on the Commission, we had the Women's Hockey League come to talk to us, the Senior Rec League is being pushed back later and later because of other users and that and so you're not even prioritizing those two organizations in this chart then."
Mr. Geronazzo observed that they would define that use as an adult booking if there was a majority of adults participating.
Mr. Cunningham followed up that he believe that as the two leagues have been around for quite a while the City might need a new category to reflect that long standing use.
Following the discussion, Council then voted to approve the new policy and its table for priority use.
You can review the back and forth of the discussion from the report through the City's Video Archive starting at the nine minute mark.
For more items of interest related to Monday's City Council Session see our Council Timeline.
Further background on city council discussion themes can be found from our Council Discussion page.
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