City council recently rescued Earl Bales ski hill with the approval of funding it needed to stay open this winter.
Coun. Joe Mihevc said the move was important to maintaining accessibility.
“Not everyone can go to the Mt. St. Louis and the Blue Mountains and afford the prices, both of the travel and also the lift fees,” he said. “But these are affordable.”
After a failed bid to find a private operator to take over for the city, staff recommended shuttering the slopes in the coming season. The decision to shop out two of the city’s ski hills was made as a cost-saving measure in this year’s budget.
But last month, executive committee found the roughly half a million dollars needed to keep both slopes running in a reserve set up with the 2009 surplus.
Ann Dembinski, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 79, called it the right decision. She said she thinks the ski hills would pay for themselves if more people used them.
“The city has not put a lot of effort into letting the public know that these two facilities exist,” she said.
Clive Kessel, president of the North York Alpine Racing Club, was happy to learn that the upcoming season had been saved, but he still has concerns about the future.
“Maybe we can convince council or the members up there that it’s an important resource for the city, and we need to keep it run by the city,” he said.
Moving forward, Kessel would like to see the city involve user groups in the decision-making process.
“It’s all been behind closed doors, other than the results of decisions,” he said.