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City of Duncan to stop covering user fees and water at Cowichan Sportsplex

Sportsplex has new funding model after October’s referendum
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The City of Duncan will stop covering user fees and providing free water to the Cowichan Sportsplex (pictured) over a three-year period. (Citizen file photo)

The City of Duncan intends to stop supplying free water and paying $15,000 worth of service fees per year for the Chesterfield Sports Society, which operates the Cowichan Sportsplex.

The city has had an agreement with the society to cover these services for many years.

But the Valley’s taxpayers decided in a referendum that was held in October to switch to a user-based funding model at nine significant recreation centres, including the Cowichan Sportsplex, in the Cowichan Valley Regional District that will better reflect the proportion of cost each municipality and electoral area will contribute to the ongoing maintenance and operation of each facility.

RELATED STORY: COWICHAN-WIDE REFERENDUM ON FUNDING FOR RECREATIONAL FACILITIES PASSES

The Cowichan Sportsplex is a popular regional outdoor sports, fitness and recreation park covering more than 26 acres in the Valley.

It is situated on land owned by North Cowichan, but the Sportsplex is widely used by many in the Valley and beyond.

The new funding model is subject to a three-year phase-in period that begins in 2023, and the City of Duncan’s council decided at its meeting on March 20 that it intends to cut the city’s $15,000 contribution to cover service fees to the Chesterfield Sports Society incrementally over those years until it is no longer paying for them.

The fees will be reduced from $15,000 per year to $10,000 in 2023, $5,000 in 2024 and nothing in 2025.

Water credits will similarly be reduced over the three years.

Giving a water grant to the Cowichan Sportsplex does not cost the city money out of pocket, but the cost is spread among all the water users.

This cost to water users will be progressively reduced each year until the agreement between the Chesterfield Sports Society and the city terminates on Jan. 1, 2025.



robert.barron@cowichanvalleycitizen.com

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