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Canada's Tournament Capital needs more funds in its reserves to maintain sports facilities.

City councillors are grappling with how to keep up with the maintenance on nearly $1.5 billion worth of civic facilities and on the table is an increase to fees for using arenas, pools and sports fields.

It was proposed by councillor Kelly Hall in response to a staff report that suggested the city hasn't set aside enough money for civic facility maintenance. While Kamloops taxpayers face a potential minimum 9.8% tax increase next year, councillors spent part of a meeting, Nov. 20, considering where they could cut costs.

"I'm going to take a different approach on this," Hall said. "When I look at this proposed service area (cut), I also look and think rather than look at cutting costs, why don't we look at generating revenue to help?"

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Sports facilities last had their fees increased in December 2022 and city staff found Kamloops generally charges less than the average BC city, but it varied depending on the type of facility. For example, ice rinks cost around $4 less than the BC average at $199 per hour, while artificial turf fields cost around $37 per hour in Kamloops and averaged $51 across the province.

The fees were increased by five or seven per cent among depending on the facility with plans to revisit the matter in 2026.

"I know it's a hard ask, but it's an opportunity to take a look at that," Hall said, suggesting the possibility of charging parking fees, too.

In 2006, Kamloops city council made plans to increase user fees so they could make up half of the operating costs at each facility. With the exception of ice rinks and the Tournament Capital Centre, that hasn't happened. As of 2022, pool fees covered roughly a quarter of the costs and fields for soccer or baseball, for example, picked up just 17%. 

The 2022 city staff report blamed the rental and user fee shortfall on high demand from organizations with leases or agreements like sports leagues. Without enough facilities to share, rental revenues dropped. The options were to reduce service levels or increase the fees.

The suggestion to increase fees at sports facilities got some agreement from other councillors but not all.

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Councillor Nancy Bepple said there's a regular process to sports fees and that review isn't supposed to happen before the next budget is decided.

The budget tends to "creep" up with small additions over time and council should instead explore somewhere that taxes can be cut, she said.

"If we want to have substantive changes, we have to cut service levels," Bepple said.

She referred to two recent additions, an increase in the winter to waste pickups and the hiring of five more police officers that she opposed and will slowly drive up city costs.

"You don't make money running a pool and we're not running a pool to make money. We're doing it because it makes a community better," she said.

Councillors Stephen Karpuk and Bill Sarai, meanwhile, agreed with Hall's suggestion to consider increasing sports fees, which is expected to return for another council discussion in the lead up to final spring budget decisions.

The sports facilities only make up a portion of the overall civic facilities and city staff are continuing a $750,000 study to plan how best to maintain them all over time. On Nov. 20, council gave the OK to increase the annual $1.5 million transferred to reserves to $3.5 million next year.

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