A number of Tantramar councillors are throwing their support behind the possible expansion the town’s new rink fee subsidy program to include high school hockey, at a cost of between $3,200 and $11,000.
Staff are recommending against expanding the program, which in its current form is expected to cost the municipality about $43,000 in discounted fees to Sackville Minor Hockey and the Sackville Skating Club.
Director of Active Living Matt Pryde told council that the new discount program replaces the Recreation and Sports Subsidy Pilot Program, which provided registration fee rebates directly to parents, in an effort to increase access and enrolment in high-cost sports.
Pryde told council that due to the competitive nature of high school hockey, where kids have to try out to make the teams, the program wouldn’t have the effect of expanding the number of kids able to register, which is why high school teams were not included in the original subsidy program. The two high school hockey teams have about 18 players each, said Pryde.
Pryde recommended against including the high school teams in the program, but his report presented two other options for council: to either give the teams discounted fees for their practice times, which would cost the town about $3200, or extend the discount to both games and practices, which would cost the town about $11,000.
Councillor Josh Goguen said he was torn over the options, and pointed out that high school hockey teams, unlike Sackville Minor Hockey, were bringing in revenue from ticket sales at games. Goguen also pointed out that the discount for high school team players could range from $89 per player if applied to just practices, up to $305 per player if applied to games and practices. Those discounts would apply against fees that are roughly $950 for Titan boys and $800 for Titan girls, according to a presentation from Tantramar Regional High School principal Susan Lafford in December.
In making her case for high school teams to be included in the subsidy program, Lafford pointed out that costs were increasing for the high school teams, and going down for minor hockey teams.
“These are all youth from the same community who want to play hockey,” Lafford told council. “There’s no reason why some of our families should benefit from this subsidy and others would not.”
In his report Monday, Pryde presented council with some examples of costs and subsidies from other rinks and high school teams in the region. “Many rinks do offer subsidized fees to high school teams based on a youth rate that would include their minor hockey program,” said Pryde, “but as you can see our full rate fees… are very comparable to the subsidized youth rates that the other arenas are offering.”
Pryde also pointed out that the operations of the civic centre, including canteen, rink, and other facilities, are already heavily subsidized by the town’s operating budget. There was roughly $262,000 in revenues for the facility in 2022, which offset about a third of the cost to actually run it that year. That left $481,000 to be covered by the town’s general tax rate.
At Monday’s committee meeting, most councillors said they supported the option to subsidize both games and practices for the high school teams. Councillors Barry Hicks, Micheal Tower, Debbie Wiggins-Colwell, Allison Butcher, Bruce Phinney, and Deputy Mayor Greg Martin all told council they were considering supporting the $11,000 subsidy.
The Mayor didn’t speak on the issue, and Councillor Matt Estabrooks had left council chambers for the discussion, after declaring a conflict of interest because of his involvement as a coach and parent.
Town clerk Donna Beal told council that the question would come back at a later meeting, either the next regular council meeting on April 9, or a future committee of the whole meeting.
