The Parksville Visitor Centre will likely see its hours reduced to save money.
City council voted to continue on with a $56,000 fee for service agreement with the Parksville and District Chamber of Commerce to operate the visitor centre, but a request for an additional $40,000 in funding was not granted.
“I would not support any more than that [$56,000]," Mayor Doug O'Brien said during council's Nov. 18 meeting. "With the hopes of working out a new agreement with the chamber of commerce to a new proposal of lesser hours and so forth and actually getting that number down.”
If council increased the annual funding by $40,000, the city would need to draw that money from business licence revenue, according to director of finance Jedha Holmes.
"In order to do that we would need to have higher property taxes to offset that revenue that is not otherwise contributing to those staff salaries and things like that,” Holmes said. “It essentially is a property tax increase of 0.22 per cent."
The chamber is operating at deficit of approximately $20,000 a year, according to Meghan Walker, president of the board of directors, who presented to council on Nov. 6.
The visitor centre building is aging and will require further maintenance to remain "viable", Walker added.
“This financial strain, combined with expected future repairs, poses challenges to our ability to provide a high service experience and maintain this asset for the public good," she said. “This [$40,000] increase will help us cover the deficit and ensure that the centre is well-maintained and continues to serve the Parksville community and its visitors.”
The chamber also receives $24,000 in annual funding from Destination B.C. for operation of the centre.
Visitation to the centre has "declined considerably" over the last decade, according to O'Brien.
“The visitor information continues to have lesser visits because everybody’s using this,” he said, and held up his smart phone.
Although technology has replaced the need for visitors to stop at the centre, there are still many people who prefer to speak with someone in person, Walker said.
"We certainly do have a lot of older visitors here that come and visitors from outside the country that come and use our wifi to look for things or ask for specific advice," she said. "They really like boots on the ground advice. They don’t necessarily just want to look at Trip Advisor reviews.”
The chamber will need to "be extremely creative" to keep operating the centre on its current budget, Walker added.
