YORKTON - It’s often easy to look at recreational facilities as a municipal cost that might be an area that could be trimmed in terms of spending to facilitate for work on areas such as asphalt, water line and sidewalk replacement and renewal.
It is a widely understood at the municipal level that communities are decades behind in terms of infrastructure renewal, and finding additional dollars to invest annually is something that seems to be an inevitable requirement to avoid massive street decay and underground pipe collapse.
So eyes are on municipal spending and recreation facilities typically losing money.
Deer Park Golf Course might manage to break even in some years on operations, but there is almost no chance it can generate payments on the new clubhouse build, which will come from general city coffers.
Indoor pools just don’t run in the black very often either.
And the list goes on.
But there is ultimately more to recreational facilities than their individual bottom lines based on operations and renewal set aside.
On the one hand recreational facilities are very much about the quality of life of city residents.
You might never have had a son, or daughter in hockey, but you likely know neighbourhood kids who love the game, or you are a Junior Terrier fan and trek to the rink for that.
You might not swim, but you might well enjoy curling, or vice versa.
You may not hit a ball around Deer Park, but you enjoy hitting a ball across a net playing pickleball.
In the end rare will be someone using all the recreation facilities in the city, but when you add the library and art gallery to the mix, most will enjoy at least some of the local offerings.
And then beyond adding to the lifestyle of residents there is the importance of recreation facilities in helping generate tourism dollars that are important to the local community.
Whether it was the recently held Kinsmen Perogy Cup, the Abominable Snow Slam 2023 (a taekwondo event), the Springers Invitational Gymnasts Tournament held in the city this weekend, or dozens of other events held annually, people end up coming to our city to compete.
When people travel to compete, they stay in hotels, and that means jobs from desk clerk to room maids are maintained.
They eat in local restaurants and that means cooks and waitresses work.
They buy gas.
They shop in stores.
Every dollar someone spends while competing, or watching an event, moves through the economy, paying wages that flow to paying mortgages and buying groceries and paying local taxes.
It doesn’t mean our rec facilities make money, but they do improve our lives and help the economy.
