Prince George, B.C.- Made up of several  divisions,  the Community Services department  for the City of Prince George, has  presented a budget to City Council which calls for some increases and some decreases in different areas.

The Aquatics Division will receive about $80 thousand dollars more in 2010, with a budget of  $2.28 million dollars. The Aquatics Division reports a slight decline in attendance (about 1%) and monthly membership sales are down by about 286 per month. The annual number of visits was just shy of 420 thousand, with 30% of those visits from children. Councilor Cameron Stolz has called for the City to do a better job of advertising the aquatics opportunities to students at CNC and UNBC  He says if the City can get the students hooked on some of the recreation opportunities available, it may go a long way to retaining students in the community once they have completed their studies.

At CN Centre, the budget would increase by about $4 thousand dollars  to  just under $663 thousand dollars  for the gap between the revenue and expenditures. Last year, the CN Centre brought  in $1.58 million dollars, but expenditures were $2.29 million and are expected to increase to $2.32 million in 2010. General Manager Andy Beasley  said there was concern heading into 2009 about the success of some of the booked events because of the downturn in the economy. He told City Council  they have learned people only have so many entertainment dollars, and some shows suffered because of it. “The Disney High School Musical show was one of the biggest shows we have ever had, but sadly it  didn’t sell as well as we had anticipated.” 

Beasley says there are some new revenue sources, for instance, an  ATM machine will be installed, and that   will generate revenue. There will also be an expansion of food and beverage services.

The good news, the arenas have seen a 9% increase in overall bookings so far this year, but that could have more to do with a shift in minor hockey scheduling than anything else.

The Community Arenas budget is also expected to increase, by about $13 thousand dollars to $1.069 million. 

Beasley says his staff have been working very hard on the bid to host the 2015 winter games, “We have been very involved in the technical review and want to be even more involved in the next stages.”

 Council will resume budget deliberations at 7:00 this evening.