Discussion around regional funding of Salmon Arm recreation facilities will be returning to city council.
Included in the April 14 city council meeting agenda was a notice of motion on facility funding from Couns. Debbie Cannon, Kevin Flynn and Tim Lavery.
In the notice, the councillors ask that staff prepare a report in response to "steady population increases" in the city and neighbouring Columbia Shuswap Regional District electoral areas having "led to higher demand for programming and usage of key City recreation facilities." The ask also comes in response to "increased demand, operations and maintenance costs…;" because "city taxpayers currently subsidize all recreation facilities by approximately 50% of actual operating and maintenance costs for all users regardless of whether those users pay fees to use the facilities;" and that "fees currently charged for the use of city facilities… are "not an adequate contribution to actual operating and maintenance costs."
The motion asks that staff review recreational funding models other local governments have in place that address similar concerns, and recommend options for more "equitable usage contributions from non-taxpayers either through updated funding agreements with surrounding Electoral Areas or through residency-based usage pricing or a combination of both."
Staff is also asked to show projected revenue and cost implications of potential new systems of usage pricing, and review "possible agreement language and apportionment approaches with Electoral Areas that are currently not fully paying for these recreation usages."
The motion, to be part of an upcoming council meeting agenda, asks that staff present the report for the Oct. 14, 2025 meeting.
The notice of motion stems from discussion at the March 24 council meeting regarding a report received from Shuswap Recreation Society general manager Darin Gerown. The report revolved around postal codes collected from users of city facilities, including the SASCU Recreation Centre, Rogers Rink and city sports fields and courts, between February 2024 and February 2025.
Of the 1,577 postal codes collected from Rogers Rink users, 74 per cent were from Salmon Arm, 20 per cent were from the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) and four per cent were from the Regional District of the North Okanagan (RDNO). The remaining two per cent came from the Thompson Nicola Regional District and "other." Of the 26 per cent of non-Salmon Arm residents, 44 per cent was from Electoral Area G/CSRD, 24 was from Area C/CSRD (which pays $60,000 annually towards Rogers Rink), and 16 per cent was from RDNO.
More than 19,600 postal codes were collected from users of the SASCU Recreation Centre, which includes the city's swimming pool. Seventy-eight per cent of those uses were from Salmon Arm, 11 from the CSRD, six from RDNO and five from "other," though Gerow said there would have been a very small amount from the TNRD.
