Dear Editor:
Re: Visiting some city facilities will cost you more, Burnaby NOW, April 25.
Burnaby city council has recently voted on the new facility use fee schedule for the upcoming year. The results are a disappointment to the least well off in society, as fees are projected to increase by an average of 2.5 per cent this year, which the city states is less than the increase in operating expenses for those facilities.
I understand the need to ensure we can pay our bills as a city and ensure that the facilities remain as well maintained as possible for future generations, but we must find solutions that don't require increasing fees on those least able to afford them.
In particular, the increase in the price of the Be Active passes is a step in the wrong direction.
The cost of the Be Active passes has increased by about 1.6 per cent for all forms of the pass, and it's admirable that the city council was able to keep the increases as low as they did.
This is still the wrong direction for fees to be going, especially if we want to ensure that lowerincome families are able to take advantage of the facilities available to us in Burnaby.
A 15 per cent reduction in the cost of the Be Active passes would pave the way for far more people to use them, something I would imagine would more than make up the cost of the fee reduction.
Keeping people healthy is just a positive side effect.
Trevor Ritchie, Burnaby
