With the Canada Games Centre up and running, Whitehorse taxpayers will be paying $714,965 more this year for their new recreation facility.

According to city financial manager Ray Goruick, the net cost, total expenditures after considering revenues collected, for 2001, the last year the city ran its three older facilities, totalled $1,347,000 ($1,485,035 in 2005 dollars, according to the Bank of Canada).

In 2001, city funds went toward covering the costs of the Stan McCowan Arena, Takhini Arena and the Lions' pool facility when it was located downtown.

In 2005, the city will pay a net cost of $2.2 million for Stan McCowan, for half a year, the Takhini Arena and the Canada Games Centre.

Most of the budget for recreation facilities in Whitehorse will be going to the Canada Games Centre, which is projected to cost, before revenue collection, $3.4 million a year (for a full year).

However, much of the $3.4-million budget, according to Canada Games Centre supervisor Bernie Van Hooft, will be recovered through revenues at the centre. They include membership fees, advertising, large-scale bookings and conventions.

'We're looking at about a 65-per-cent cost recovery, because you have everything under one roof,' Van Hooft said in an interview Wednesday.

He said parks and recreation officials hope the centre will eventually reach a 100-per-cent cost recovery level.

Van Hooft said the two biggest factors in the operating and maintenance budget for the Canada Games Centre will be labour costs and utilities.

'The breakdown is pretty simple in terms of our operating expenditures $1.6 million goes to salaries and benefits, utilities are $1 million and the rest are just your operating costs for (things such as) materials and supplies and equipment for the facility.'

Van Hooft said the $1.6 million in labour costs will go toward paying the salaries and benefits of the centre's '75 full- and part-time' employees.

He said the $1 million earmarked for utilities include the services necessary to run the facility.

'It's your water and sewer, electrical, propane and your garbage removal from waste collection services.

'The way the system is operating, the mechanicals are actually far more efficient than in other facilities,' he said.

Van Hooft said the Canada Games Centre will experience considerable savings due to cost reduction measures being employed.

'We're using the heat recovery from the ice plant to actually heat the pool and to (partly) heat the building,' he said.

'We (also) have electrical boilers and oil boilers,' he said. The centre can use either its two electrical boilers or its two oil boilers, depending on current energy costs.

'Based on the cost of utilities, we can decide which way we want to go,' he said.

The centre will also save money by using less energy for light and heat when the facility shuts down for the evening.

'At night time, we actually shave down the costs of the building.'

Parks and recreation manager Linda Rapp said the $3.4-million estimate to run the Canada Games Centre was done using comparisons with other similar facilities in the country and with the help of consultants.

'We weren't really pulling numbers out of the air. The unknown was the interest in the facility.'

'As part of the original design of the building, we also did a lot of work on coming up with an operational plan.

'In doing that, we worked with the consultant, Conrad and Associates, out of Edmonton, they were working with our design team ... and we looked at other facilities and extrapolated that information typically using percentages,' Rapp said.

Costs for janitorial services, which came in at three times the estimate made by Conrad and Associates, were, in reality, a little higher than expected but not extreme, she added, considering the services now being offered were different than those originally examined by the consultants.

The original estimate for janitorial services by Conrad and Associates was $132,150 a year.

The lowest tender for janitorial services for the centre came in at $336,000 a year.

'Certainly, it became an issue in our budget; it was like comparing apples and oranges,' said Rapp. 'What we asked for in our janitorial contract was quite different than what we had looked at as part of the consultant's report.'

She said the costs for the mid-'80s era Takhini Arena will also be less in the coming years, and the city will be saving $200,000 a year now that Stan McCowan won't be operating.

'All of the staffing that was involved in Stan McCowan switches over between here and Takhini. Takhini's hours have also been adjusted because the daytime use now can be directed (to the Canada Games Centre) so we're actually only opening Takhini in our peak hours.

'There are some savings in Takhini,' Rapp said.

She said while Stan MaCowan will not be open, it will remain on 'life support' so it can be brought back into commission for the 2007 Canada Winter Games.

Rapp and Van Hooft said they don't anticipate the Canada Games Centre will result in a heavier burden on city coffers.

'It's not going to have a huge impact on the taxpayers,' Rapp said.

'Let's take the worst-case scenario and everyone had to kick in $5 or $10 to cover the costs. Is that really outrageous for a community to enjoy this kind of facility?' asked Van Hooft.