Sports leagues, city at odds over hourly fees

ASKING FOR DELAY

Toronto sports leagues are fighting an increase in user fees they say city council hid in the 2012 budget.

In a move Toronto Sports Council is calling a “tax on children” the city has amended its hourly fees for sports fields. Under the new budget, children and youth leagues will now have to pay an hourly rate.

The East York Baseball League, to use one example, received a bill in March for $53,000 for field use, when last year it paid nothing.

Stating they were never consulted, leagues were to gather at City Hall Tuesday night to voice their concerns.

City officials dispute the suggestions that the increases were hidden. The information was made public as it was contained in the 2012 budget, said Graham Mitchell, Manager of Public Relations for Parks, Forestry & Recreation.

“We recognize that the timing didn’t work for a lot of the organizations, but that is an unfortunate result of the budget process,” he said.

The estimated $1.5-million generated from these fees will support continuing operations of the Parks and Recreation division, he said, and the funds will also help offset costs to maintain services. Furthermore, leagues have been benefiting from free field use for years. “Before, fees for youth and children were zero and most other municipalities charge for that, Mr. Mitchell said. “As a result, that proposal wa s offered up as an option to council as a means of achieving a balanced budget.”

But there are other ways to generate revenue for the city, said Jack Brown of the Toronto Sports Council. He points to the vehicle registration tax that the Ford administration removed.

“Now instead of taxing cars that create pollution, we are taxing children and volunteers,” he said.

With these new fees, the Royal York Baseball League has been forced to scale back on practice times and coaching clinics in order to get its bill down from $97,000 to $30,000.

“It’s not the same program that it once was and each child and youth will have to pay an extra $80 to register,” said Ian Young, vice-president of the Royal York Rep League.

City councillors Janet Davis and Paula Fletcher are hoping to see the increase in fees revisited, as many of the leagues have already collected for registration.

“They just can’t believe that nobody told them this was going to happen,” said Ms. Fletcher. “They just got a bill, it says pay this now, we’ve changed the fee structure.”

If they were given the proper notice, they could have collected the money in registration fee increases, said Andrew Pace, president of the East York Baseball league said.

“Give us a chance to raise the funds in the proper timeline, we have already collected two-thirds of our registration fees — how can I go back and ask for more?”