Seniors fear rec programs jeopardized by escalating facility fees By: Nicole Buffie Posted: 6:27 PM CDT Thursday, Sep. 26, 2024

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This article was published 26/09/2024 (676 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Seniors across Winnipeg are at risk of losing access to health and recreation programs after dozens of organizations have been slapped with astronomical increases to facility fees.

A group that represents the Good Neighbours Active Living Centre picketed outside city hall Thursday — some of them holding signs that said “save our seniors centres” and “partners, not tenants” — to denounce the fee hikes.

Good Neighbours executive director Susan Sader says some groups face a ten-fold increase in facility fees. In their case, they operate programs out of the Bronx Park Community Centre at 720 Henderson Hwy.

She said their members can’t absorb such a boost because many have low incomes. Each participant pays $35 a year to join the club.

“Seniors are part of the community, they shouldn’t be made to be left out from it,” Sader said.

Archwood 55 Plus, a seniors group based in the city-owned Archwood Community Club in Norwood, was hit with a whopping increase — to $10,000 a year from $1,000, its president, Don Bodnarchuk said.

Archwood may be forced to triple its individual membership fee to $90 from $30 per year, quadruple program fees and burn up its contingency fund.

“Our people cannot afford that increase,” Bodnarchuk said.

Barbara Guia fears without access to community programming, social isolation will force her into a seniors home.

Guia has participated in Good Neighbours since 2005. The widow credits her independence to the weekly programming, where she takes creative writing classes.

Guia recently finished writing her autobiography because of a class she took.

“I’m trying to get involved in everything possible to survive,” Guia said outside city hall Thursday. “We have paid taxes all our lives. We should be treated equally, like everybody else.”

“We have paid taxes all our lives. We should be treated equally, like everybody else.”–Barbara Guia

Community centre boards of directors, which set rental prices for facilities, are overseen by the volunteer-run General Council of Winnipeg Community Centres.

GCWCC executive director Lora Meseman said their costs have risen for several reasons, including the upcoming increase in minimum wage, which is due to rise 50 cents to $15.80 as of Oct. 1. and will affect all programming ran out of those particular centres.

Meseman said it is up to the discretion of each community centre board to increase facility fees, and isn’t a decision made by the municipal government.

John Felbsted, who oversees programs for the Elmwood East Kildonan Active Living Centre, fears his group could cease to exist if the fees it pays to use space at 180 Poplar Ave. increase substantially.

“Individuals that have come to join us discover they’re happier and healthier than they’ve ever been, so they start giving back to the organization that helped them, and that’s where our volunteers come from,” Felbsted explained. “Losing that would be a tremendous blow to every community.”

Sader said the Bronx Park centre wants the senior non-profit to pay $35,000 to operate out of the Henderson Highway location, which the organization has used as its base since it was built in 2009.

The volunteer-run program has 1,100-members, whom she said can’t afford the increase in price despite the program’s importance, Sader said.

“We learned during (the COVID-19 pandemic) how important connection is,” Sader said. “If we close our doors, all those people are going to suffer, and their families suffer, too.”

The organization has long been at odds with the city about its role at the community centre, Sader said, citing the ongoing civil litigation between the two entities.

Court records show Good Neighbours filed a lawsuit against the city in 2020 for a breach of contract relating to joint development of the Bronx centre when the city proposed its construction in 2002.

The lawsuit alleges after decades of using city-owned buildings for its programs, the city proposed a partnership between itself and Good Neighbours involving the proposed community centre, where the non-profit was to manage the facility.

In its lawsuit, Good Neighbours alleges the city is treating the organization like a tenant, not a partner.

In the city’s statement of defence, it claims the management agreement says the city is the building manager, not the seniors organization.

Mayor Scott Gillingham says there is a lease agreement on a portion of the Bronx community centre allocated for Good Neighbours and there’s an “appropriate cost” for the organization to use it.

The city is working with the non-profit to resolve the matter, the mayor said at an unrelated news conference.

“It’s an important organization. There are many important organizations and community groups that have access to, or lease city facilities. We want to find a way as a city to accommodate those organizations, and so the dialog continues,” Gillingham told reporters.

— with files from Joyanne Pursaga

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca