Surfing simulator

People who don't live in sa国际传媒 should pay more than local residents to use city-owned recreation facilities such as the H20 Adventure and Fitness Centre, where a unique surfing simulator is one of the attractions, consultants suggest in a report considered Monday by council.听

sa国际传媒 city councillors were intrigued but also a little leery when presented Monday with a long list of ways to increase municipal revenue.

The idea of generating more cash was appealing to councillors but they also acknowledged residents might not听fancy the wholesale introduction of new fees and charges.听

鈥淚 really like this, but I also think we would want to bounce this off folk,鈥 said Coun. Gord Lovegrove, suggesting the public should be invited to comment on the proposals.听

Coun. Loyal Wooldridge said the city was showing creativity by considering more user-pay models for various municipal services and programs that, he said, would help to limit future tax increases.听

鈥淭he entrepreneurial spirit of the City sa国际传媒 shines through in this report. I鈥檓 really grateful to see this come forward,鈥 Wooldridge said. 鈥淲hat can鈥檛 be underscored enough is the focus on reducing general tax increases for our residents.鈥

Increasing revenue through user-pay fees also struck Coun. Luke Stack as reasonable and desirable but he said the city should do more to persuade people such measures would work to mitigate future tax hikes.听

鈥淭his particular report today is packaged as 鈥榬evenue generation鈥,鈥 Stack said, noting the title of the report, prepared by two consultants at a cost to the city of $67,000,听is called 鈥楧riving Municipal Revenue.

鈥淏ut itsa国际传媒 actually much more than that,鈥 Stack said. 鈥淚tsa国际传媒 revenue generation, innovation, and cost reduction. But the way the media has picked this up, all we鈥檙e hearing is, 鈥楾his is council, or the City of sa国际传媒, looking for revenue generation.

鈥淚 think the citizens hear, 鈥極h, my god, they鈥檙e going to nickel-and-dime us to death鈥,鈥 Stack said. 鈥淚tsa国际传媒 quite clear that innovation and cost reduction are key partners in our goal to make our city more efficient.鈥

Coun. Maxine DeHart said city staff hadn鈥檛 given enough consideration to how the 90-page report on new revenue possibilities would be received by the public.听

鈥淭he public immediately saw, 鈥楳oney, money, money. They鈥檙e just two-bitting us to death again,鈥 DeHart said. 鈥淚鈥檝e certainly got a lot of comments about this.鈥

Coun. Ron Cannan said he wasn鈥檛 opposed to the city considering new revenue streams, but he said the overall effect of city charges should be kept in mind.听

鈥淭axpayers are feeling like a squeezed-out lemon,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e juiced out and don鈥檛 want to be squeezed any more.鈥

In response to councillors boasting that sa国际传媒sa国际传媒 2024 tax hike is below that being charged in nearby municipalities, Cannan pointed out it was still above the inflation rate.听

More than 120 revenue-generating ideas were considered by the consultants. The top ones, to be recommended for implementation at future council meetings, include:听

- charging everyone who uses a boat launch a fee, not just commercial operators as is currently the case

- increasing all fees and charges at civic-owned facilities such as recreation centres. One specific proposal is to charge residents of West sa国际传媒, Lake Country, and other municipalities more to use city-owned recreation complexes such as the H2O Centre on Gordon Drive. Cannan said the fact non-sa国际传媒 residents currently pay the same fees as sa国际传媒 residents has long been a 鈥減et peeve鈥 of his.听

- collecting more fees from homebuilders for trees and other streetscape amenities听

- leasing access to the city-owned 36-km-long dark fibre network, which provides high-speed Internet access, to businesses

- selling data the city collects to businesses. An example given in the report is selling crime-related data to security firms