Coquitlam curlers are pushing back at the city’s assertion that they are receiving a higher subsidy than other ice arena user groups.
Flanked by several dozen supporters carrying signs that said “Save Coquitlam Curling” during a committee meeting on Monday, Brian Bastien outlined his case for keeping a dedicated curling facility at Coquitlam’s Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex (PSLC).
“I say, respectfully, that denigrating and shaming curlers based on faulty financial metrics should stop,” he said during a delegation presentation to council. He later added, “It is now wrongly believed that curlers are not carrying their weight.”
He took issue with a consultant’s findings that said the cost recovery for curling is only 20% compared to 60% for other ice uses.
The numbers have been cited by city staff as one of the reasons for moving curling out of PSLC and amalgamating the Coquitlam club with a club based at the Port Moody rec complex.
Bastien said the numbers used by the consultant do not account for revenue generated by the rink at other times of the year and that the measurement of the rink in the report is larger than what the curlers are actually using.
He added that while evicting the curlers would free up the ice for more convenient practice times for hockey and figure skating, it would result in less people using the Poirier complex overall.
“I contend that it is wrong to evict curlers to make them pay for hockey’s convenience,” he said.
“Curlers have been here for more than 50 years. It will be far more than an inconvenience to the seniors, physically and mentally disabled, students, juniors and other curlers, if evicted.”
But the city of Coquitlam has numbers of its own.
Raul Allueva, Coquitlam’s general manager of parks, recreation and cultural services, told The Tri-City News Bastien’s analysis does “not change the result.”
He noted that while the curlers dispute some of the expenses associated with the rink, labour costs for maintaining curling ice is higher than the other arenas.
Mayor Richard Stewart said staff and council will examine all of the numbers that have been put forward but in the end it is “about balancing scarce resources.”
“We are dealing with an eight-year-old hockey player who is scheduled for a 5:30 a.m. hockey practice when there is all kinds of time when the [curling] rink is empty,” he said. “We get those kinds of comments from the hockey parents.”
Staff will take Bastien’s analysis of the consultant’s numbers and some of the other issues brought forward during the public input process, and bring a report to council later in the fall.
@gmckennaTC
