The Rossland Recreation Task Force has released a final report outlining what the city could do to help more residents access recreation facilities in Trail.
Rossland residents have had to pay twice as much as local residents to access the city’s recreational facilities after a regional recreation agreement was cancelled in 2008.
The city currently provides $10,000 in subsidies annually to help youth groups access the facilities. The subsidies help the groups cover around half of the facility fees for Rossland residents.
The report said one option is to expand the subsidies to slo-pitch, tennis, hockey and other sport groups in Rossland using the facilities. This option would cost the city up to $35,000 annually.
A second option is for the city to subsidized residents individually who are using Trail facilities at a cost of at least $60,000 annually.
The report said the city could reimburse Rosslanders directly for the extra fees they have to pay.
The report suggests high administrative costs and reimbursing residents manually are two downsides to the option.
A third option is for the city to renegotiate a regional recreation agreement with Trail. The agreement would potentially let Rosslanders use Trail facilities at the same price local residents pay.
The report said the deal could be costly, especially since Trail wanted Rossland to fork out at least $100,000 annually for a similar partnership back in 2015.
A fourth option is to not provide any financial support for Rosslanders using the Trail facilities. The report notes this would be the least costly option for Rossland taxpayers.
“If this report establishes anything, it is that there are no easy answers here,” the task force wrote. “It’s not clear which users Rossland should support in the use of Trail’s facilities, if any.”
The Trail Aquatic and Leisure Centre and Trail Memorial Centre are some of the most popular recreation facilities in the city.
Task force members will present the findings from the report to city council on Aug. 10.
The task force was created in 2019 and is made of made of city council members, city staff, Rossland residents and a chair.
