WESTLOCK - Westlock County councillors want to know how much the municipality has contributed annually to the Tawatinaw Ski Hill from 2018-2021, what land-lease agreements are in place and how much they cost, plus a list of all of the capital assets at the hill.
Those, as well as more detailed information on where the hill’s visitors are coming from, are questions councillors want answered following close to 90 minutes of debate on the hill and the Tawatinaw Valley Ski Club’s capital plan at the county’s March 22 regular meeting. Administration is expected to have those figures in front of council at its April 19 governance and priorities meeting.
Westlock County pays $175,000 annually to the Tawatinaw Valley Ski Club as part of a six-year contract signed by the two in late-summer 2021 to manage the hill. That contract was negotiated exclusively during in-camera discussions and approved following a closed-door session at the Aug. 10, 2021, county meeting — the yearly financial commitment by the county and length of the deal were not made available until Sept. 14, 2021. For comparison, the previous deal, signed in 2018, saw the county pay $250,000 annually ($200,000 in operating and $50,000 in capital) to the group to manage the site.
Although councillors expressed support and gratitude to the ski club for their work and said they appreciated the history of the hill, getting clarity on the total municipal contribution is paramount — the current council is composed of five new members elected last fall, while the CAO who led the negotiations on the contract is no longer employed by the municipality.
Coun. Stuart Fox-Robinson said the county’s total expenditure to the ski hill for 2018-2021 needs to be “laid out in a relatively simple Excel format” as council has “struggled to know the exact details and we’re learning more as the days go by.”
“There are a huge amount of volunteer hours that have gone in by the ski club and they have done a tremendous job of getting where they are today. It is a very well-liked piece of recreation by some and a hot topic in the coffee shops for others. And I think council’s job is to understand what we’re doing on behalf of our residents. I think it’s that simple,” said Fox-Robinson. “I think with council understanding what’s in these agreements, I think council is doing its job. And I don’t think there’s any need for concern on behalf of the ski group.”
“For me, as a member of council, I would like to know when a resident asks, ‘How much of my tax money goes to the ski hill?’ I would like to be able to answer that,” added reeve Christine Wiese. “We have a budget here for 2022 for $393,582. The management fee, if we subtract it, is $175,000. That’s a lot of money in between.”
Interim CAO Pat Vincent confirmed the $393,582 budget includes the $175,000 management fee, while $172,000 is for the ongoing debenture on the chalet. During the debate Vincent recommended councillors and Tawatinaw board members take a tour of the hill in person then meet and discuss the future of the facility. In addition, community services coordinator Adrienne Finnegan told councillors that any revenue the club makes is turned back into capital purchases, which “are Westlock County assets.”
Fox-Robinson said that anecdotally he’s heard the county “spent $3 million in one year” at the ski hill, but knows that isn’t true and ultimately wants to set the record straight.
“There’s no evidence that I’m aware of to support that ($3 million claim) and I think this will go a long way to dealing with some of those rumours,” he said.
“I just want a number so I can tell ratepayers this is what it is. I just want it in black and white,” said Coun. Sherri Provencal, who also had questions on the annual insurance costs. “For me I just want an understanding. Let’s get it all out in the open. I do want to know the bottom line, what we actually pay from the county, from taxpayer money.
“I think the ski hill is a great thing. I admire all the work that has been put into it by all the volunteers. I’m just looking for clarity.”
Massive report
At the Jan. 18, GPC meeting, councillors directed administration to bring several documents on the hill to the February GPC meeting, but due to “capacity and timelines” administration asked for an extension — the materials were included in the March 17 GPC package, but not discussed until the March 22 meeting.
That exhaustive 152-page package which Wiese called “amazing” includes the current and past agreements between the municipality and the club, a comparison of those and a business-case study for the hill.
“The reason that council had asked for the two contracts to come back is that there has been an ongoing misunderstanding, potential misunderstanding, with council and certainly with residents over what is included in the contracts, what was included in the previous contract and so on and so forth. The reason for it to come back to council is so that council can see it in black and white and have the opportunity to discuss it and ensure that everyone is on exactly the same page so there’s no misunderstandings,” said Fox-Robinson.
When the contract length was raised, councillors Isaac Skuban and Jared Stitsen noted they went longer to allow for more “stability” for the club when they apply for grants or seek sponsorships — Skuban and Stisten are the only holdovers from the previous council.
Skuban said the previous council was “optimistic” they could get financial support from neighbouring municipalities, although he admitted they “may have to bide our time on that one.” Stitsen added the club has actively talked with neighbouring municipal councils and been extremely successful in getting corporate donations.
“It was kind of a vote of confidence by the county giving them the six years,” said Skuban, adding they were told by their lawyers that it made more sense to craft a new agreement instead of amending the old one. “I think time is our friend here. They’ve got a big capital project with the magic carpet (budgeted at $290,000) coming up and I think if we wait for that stuff, the noise will settle around the hill and we can focus on what’s really important with what’s going on there.”
“It was a commitment by Westlock County to show what we wanted to do (there) and in the hope that other counties and donors would also contribute,” added Stitsen.
The package, which councillors accepted as information March 22, also included the club’s 2020-2021 year-end report, capital expenses for 2018-2021, donations and grants from 2018-2022, the club’s 2022 financial statements and a list of the visitors from December 2021 to February 2022. Finngean said the only document that didn’t end up in the package was a list of the board members and what they do in “their non volunteer time.”
Vincent said they weren’t trying to “snow council” by the sheer volume of the package and tried to lay it out in a “sequential, logical order so (he) could understand it.”
“We went through all your questions and tried to put it together in a sequence that would answer those questions for you that was complete,” said Vincent.
Quotes to stabilize chalet being sought
Briefing notes in that package also highlight the fact that the administration is “currently working on gathering quotes” for the completion of a structural engineering report at the chalet.
Councillors learned as part of a recreation and community services report delivered by Finnegan at the Jan. 18 governance and priorities meeting that the chalet, “ … continues to move. Repairs will have to be completed.”
She also told councillors then that a county-hired contractor, who’s not a structural engineer, had done “several” measurements and adjustments to the screw jacks under the chalet, with the two most recent happening Nov. 29 and Dec. 22.
The chalet opened in 2015 and had an initial price tag of $2 million, which according to reports in the intervening years, ballooned to as much as $3 million — with the building all but done in 2014, it had to be physically moved due to flooding after an initial engineering report on a suitable location was ignored. A $1.5 million debenture on the facility is slated to mature in 2023, leaving roughly $344,000 left to be paid this year and next.
Capital plan deferred
The club’s capital plan, which had been slated to appear at the March 17 GPC meeting but was moved to the March 22 meeting for approval, was deferred yet again until the April 12 regular meeting.
Following a 25-minute debate that went round and round, councillors ultimately wanted to see more specific costs and get further clarification on a number of club projects, which are all funded via grants and club revenue — Finnegan assured councillors the municipality only provides $175,000 in operating dollars to the club as per the August 2021 agreement.
“I’m not suggesting that there are items on here that haven’t been approved by a previous council. My comments are really a case of council needing to approve a dollar value here. I’m not debating the merits of anything that’s on here, I just want to see a dollar value attached to the resolution that we’re making,” said Fox-Robinson.
