Renting a field, arena floor or tennis court in Saint John is going to cost more this year.
Common Council approved a three per cent rate hike across the board earlier this week.
That was despite an initial staff recommendation calling for rates to be frozen again.
Earlier in February, council asked staff to incorporate a “modest increase to reflect the increasing costs of delivering sport and recreation services.”
The rate increases range from 27 cents per hour to $2.91 per hour, according to a staff report submitted to council.
Meanwhile, staff plan to hire a consultant as they develop a new policy to calculate sport facility rates for the 2024 season.
Council had approved recreation subsidization policies in December 2019 which were designed to create a balance between individual user fees and taxpayer investment.
Once the policies are fully implemented, youth would be subsidized at 40 per cent, seniors at 30 per cent, and adults at 10 per cent.
“While the arena rates at full implementation are comparable with other local facilities, the youth rates for fields are out of scope for the environment,” said the staff report.
“The hourly rate that would need to be charged on the B Level fields for youth are not comparable in nature to other local facilities and are unrealistically high for not-for-profit groups to absorb.”
Staff said a review of the policy is needed so they can properly adjust the formula to determine how recreation facility rates are calculated.
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