"Have you ever noticed what golf spells backwards?" writer Al Balska once joked. Taxpayers whose wallets have been flogged by money-losing municipal courses understand that old chestnut all too well.
B.C. cities have no reason to spend taxpayer dollars on municipal golf courses to compete with a private sector that is already struggling to stay financially viable.
Two municipal courses have come under fire this spring after revealing just how much of a money pit golf can be for property taxpayers.
In Saanich, Victoria, city councillors voted to shut down a restaurant at Cedar Hill golf course to shave $98,000 off a projected $818,000 deficit in 2012.
In Abbotsford, city councillors voted to bail out the non-profit society that runs Ledgeview, their municipal course, with a $115,000 "one-time grant."
"We need to learn how to say no," lamented Abbotsford councillor Henry Braun as he realized his colleagues were going to approve the Ledgeview payout. Braun was bang-on; councillors likely wouldn't invest a nickel of their own money into Ledgeview, but they are more than happy to put yours into it.
Abbotsford and Saanich leaders have missed the simplest way of fixing this problem: getting taxpayers out of the golf game all together. Rather than rewarding poor financial performance with more tax dollars, they should sell their courses or, at the very least, contract out operations to professional golf club operators.
Over the past two weeks, taxpayers across B.C. have opened their property tax bills and likely wondered what kind of value they get for the dollars they send to city hall. It's one thing for taxes to go to essentials like water, sewer or public safety, it's another thing to know you're subsidizing luxuries like municipal golf courses. If you can find a service listed on YellowPages.ca, government shouldn't be providing it.
These municipal courses compete against legitimate businesses which don't have the ability to requisition dollars from your pocket through taxes in order to cover any losses. While a private operator has to pay property taxes, a city just eats that loss on their own course. It's a double bogey for taxpayers: lost property tax revenue and subsidies for failing municipal courses.
Amusingly, Abbotsford city staff blamed Ledgeview's losses on "poor weather," but say they have a plan to overcome that: "Good weather, better controls and continually challenging current practices are being worked on." One wonders how many tax dollars are going to be spent by bureaucrats to improve the weather in Abbotsford!
Even tiny municipal courses are losing money -- par-three, nine-hole Juan de Fuca course, owned and subsidized by West Shore regional taxpayers on Vancouver Island, lost $23,000 last year. That's not surprising when one considers that the number of rounds played at Juan de Fuca plummeted from 33,533 in 2009 to 24,327 last year.
Golf revenues are slowly on the decline across Canada. In 2008, golf courses and country clubs brought in $2.5 billion; in 2010, that had fallen by $48 million. Industry experts say that many areas have 30 per cent too many golf courses.
It's no wonder that more Canadian cities are getting out of golf. Thunder Bay, Ontario, for example, voted earlier this spring to close a municipal golf course, saving their taxpayers $4 million over 20 years. After years of harassment by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, even Winnipeg is in the midst of an excruciating, but inexorable, march toward selling off some of their courses.
Saanich, Abbotsford, West Shore and other municipalities should do the same. Sell off the municipal courses and put that money into core priorities in their community or, better yet, back in their taxpayers' pockets.
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Lovely green spaces were people on scheduled days can golf and on other days walk,hike bike ski or picnic.
The have always struck me as being rather limited in their application and when tax dollars or tax breaks are being applied they should be made available for all to enjoy.
Just stay off the greens.
Of course, the low income golf player cannot expect support from the Canadian Taxpayer Federation, a right-wing cabal that speaks for their rich supporters, the ones rich enough to hire high profile tax lawyers to save themselves from paying taxes. I am also sure that the Canadian Taxpayer Federation is 100% behind the rich developpers who want to take over these municipal golf courses and fill them full of condos. What a shame!
Sounds like someone looking to create a business oportunity for his friends.
This line sums it up:
"After years of harassment by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation"
You mean, of us all, not just the municipalities who are your latest shibboleth, right?
How much does the presence of Ledgeview contribute to tourism dollars in Abbotsford? I.e. hotel bookings, restaurant/bar sales, gas, golf shops etc? Increased land values?
I don't play golf, think it's boring. But the rationale behind golf courses in BC especially is they draw in tourist visits, especially from Japan. And comparing a golf course in wintery Thunder Bay to one in the Lower Mainland is like comparing a beach resort in Iceland to one in Bermuda, for pity's sake.
True, the country would have been spared a hell of a lot if the mayor of Oka hadn't been so hell-bent on expanding HIS town's municipally-owned golf course.....
Before you make these politically charged statements, perhaps you should drop by the Cedar Hill rec centre and read a little about the history of the golf course. It was left to the municipality with the proviso that the golf course was maintained - the owners of the dairy farm that built it deeded the entire property to us residents, which is surely worth something. The issue that brought things to a head was the closure of the restaurant, done in camera by council. It was a great little place with good food, but no one knew about it because they couldn't advertise their presence due to regulations. I think the staff were relocated, but we lost out on a valuable service that was well-patronized by the many retired people living there and enjoying the course. We have a couple of private clubs for the well-heeled, as well as Bear mountain, which is great if you can afford it, which most of us 99%ers can't.
I think the problem we face is that golf course maintenance has become very expensive. Fertilizer prices have doubled, while water, fuel and equipment replacement have all gone up. The only things which haven't increased proportionately are wages and pensions. Trouble is, if Saanich puts their green fees up to break even, the course would be empty.
As for there being too many courses, where did hear about that? Try getting a booking on a weekend.
I can find private security (police), fire services, and charter schools and health clinics in the yellow pages. Are you saying that we should hand these core services part and parcel over to the private sector? Ah yes you would, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation seems to have moved to the far right, private business 100% great! Public sector blood sucking leaches!