KENORA – Anicinabe Park will continue to be run by a private contractor, city councillors decided this week.
City administration had proposed putting management of the park near Wauzhushk Onigum Nation back in municipal hands, but the proposal had its critics at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Coun. Graham Chaze was among those critics and among the majority who voted in favour of a resolution to continue contracting-out in 2025.
He told fellow councillors and Mayor Andrew Poirier that moving back to city operation of the park would be risky and might not produce any profit, contrary to administration’s estimate that it could increase revenue to the municipality by $75,000.
The city netted approximately $33,000 in revenue from the park last year.
The city is concluding its annual budgeting process and “we’re under a lot of pressure right now to be maintaining our existing levels of service,” Chaze said Friday in an interview with Newswatch.
Running the park internally would add staffing, equipment and other expenses to the city budget, he said.
“Those are expenses that I don’t agree with taking on at a time when we’re trying to limit or find ways to cut some of our operating costs.
“So I would rather place the onus of that on a private contractor to staff it, to manage those employees, to buy the necessary equipment to run the business, than take that on internally at a time when we’re trying to reduce our operating expenses as much as possible.”
City budget deliberations will continue in March, Poirier said Friday.
A private business, Middle Lake Enterprises, has operated and maintained Anicinabe Park since 2019 but their contract ended last year.
Wauzhushk Onigum Nation and two other First Nations near the city filed a land claim last year to reclaim the park from Kenora.
Chaze and Poirier said they could not comment on the land claim.
