The City of Moncton is doing away with its user fees for youth sports for the next year, thanks to the help of two sports enthusiasts.
Norval McConnell and Andrew Trites went before the Committee of the Whole meeting to convince Council members to do away with the $10 fee.
It has been in place for the past 10 to 12 years…and was charged to anyone who uses gyms or field activities…
Trites says Deputy Mayor Blair Lawrence made the first motion to keep the fees in…and that was defeated, “But then Councillor Bryan Butler made a motion to have the fees removed, for the next budget year, and they voted in favour. I guess the will revisit it in a year.”
Trites is involved in a number of sports and he says it’s important that we get our youth to be active, “There aren’t enough youth participating as it is, and we need to keep the fees as low and efficient as possible.”
He also disagreed that the City should be looking for revenue from youth or kids based on their activities, they just don’t believe that’s an appropriate way, “Norval said it best, it is a double tax. Municipalities are already collecting tax from these families to maintain the fields.”
Trites says their work isn’t done totally, but they have agreed to meet with Council and get the groups together to see if there are some things they can come up with to try to offset some of the other groups that are maybe paying a little more for their user fees.
