An Edmonton ski hill needs an injection of funds from city council or it may not be able to operate this upcoming winter season.
The Edmonton Ski Club (ESC) is asking council for $1.3 million over the next five years. It is seeking $388,000 of that amount to run the hill this winter.
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Executive director Ken Saunders said this is the first time in the club’s more than 100 year history that it is approaching city council for funding.
According to an executive summary that was submitted to the city, the funding is necessary so the club “does not cease to operate” while the city develops the master plan for Gallagher Park, which has forced it to slow down plans for expansion.
“We need city assistance to keep the doors open,” he said.
The ski hill operates from November to March, sees between 15,000 and 32,000 skiers per season, and expects to see skier visits increase five to 10 per cent every year.
“Despite this growth, the facility is rapidly approaching the end of its usable life because upgrades are required,” the report reads.
“The ESC cannot keep holding things together with binder twine and duct tape, not to mention the failed infrastructure keeps costing us and makes budgeting extremely challenging. The ESC cannot do what needs to be done until the LRT is sorted. So we need the city’s partnership to keep this gem of a winter facility, right in the centre of the city, going until the larger question of the master plan can be addressed.”
The Valley Line LRT is also expected to run through the ski hill, which Saunders said will force it to relocate ski lifts and towers as well as reshape runs that will be shortened by the construction.
“The uncertainty of a construction timeline, the uncertainty of what the impact will be to the hill plays into the ultimate design of the master plan. With the limited capacity here, with the very aging infrastructure, we really have done all that we can do to be profitable,” Saunders said.
“We cannot be sustainable until we have our redevelopment. We have been approached over the past five years by multiple private enterprises that offered expansion. We even had our good friends at Marmot offer a free chair lift to us, but again all of these opportunities hit a roadblock when it came to asking permission from the city because it falls under the category of our redevelopment.”
However, the uncertainty about the future didn’t stop the club from continuing to do business.
On Sunday, the owners of snowboard club Riders on Board met with Saunders to discuss expanding their operations to the ski hill.
“Over the last couple years, there’s been a little bit of a buzz around it with their terrain park and the accommodations within town here,” said Jared Anderson.
“We like the location obviously because it’s nice and central, right downtown Edmonton. It can cater to maybe some different families that aren’t able to get to some of the other [ski hill] locations.”
Area councillor Ben Henderson said the funding request will help bridge the money gap for the ski club. He suggests it may almost be the city’s responsibility to assist the organization.
“At our request the ski hill had to slow down what its longer term plans were. I don’t know why we wouldn’t support this…because they’re not asking for [funding] permanently. They’re only asking for it to get through to the larger picture, longer-term planning,” he said.
Henderson said closure of the ski hill would be a “huge loss.”
“I think we would be crazy to let it go. We need to figure out a way to make it viable long-term.”
The report states the club has previously partnered with other clubs and businesses to be sustainable but it has had difficulty reaching fundraising goals and drew a net loss of $473,000 from 2011 to 2015.
The matter will be before the Community and Public Services Committee on Monday.
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