CORNWALL, Ontario – The Budget Committee moved to make more cuts at their meeting on Friday, March 1, 2018.
Council voted to cut $77, 000 from the budget for Big Ben. The money is paid as a subsidy to Leader Sports, who operate the site.
The money will not have a direct effect on the 2018 budget as the savings will only be seen for 2019.
Councillor Andre Rivette moved to make the cut to the City’s recreation and landfill area.
“Look at the results of the survey,” said Rivette, referring to a municipal survey where the majority of the respondents were in favour of cutting funding for Big Ben.
Councillor Bernadette Clement was one of three councillors to vote against the motion alongside councillors Carilyne Hébert and Elaine MacDonald.
“There are children every year that learn to snowboard and ski there,” she said. “I will not be supporting motions that cut services to kids.”
Councillor Claude McIntosh voted in favour of the motion saying that Big Ben’s numbers did not show a high level of use pointing to about 700 lift tickets bought during the 2017-2018 season.
McIntosh remarked that ending funding for Big Ben would not affect the day-to-day lives of the citizens of Cornwall and that cutting from other places, like the Transit budget would be felt much more. McIntosh also believed that Leader Sports would choose to close Big Ben rather than operate on their own without the City’s financial support.
Leader Sports also receives a subsidy of $65,000 to operate Marina 200, but at the time of writing there have been no moves to make cuts to that funding.
