Closing the city's multiplex facility to the public during the Canada Winter Games will cost the city $90,000.

City parks and recreation manager Linda Rapp said in an interview last Thursday the centre being closed to the public before, during and after the Games means the city will not be collecting revenue it normally takes in from multiplex users and teams renting space in the facility.

'It's about $90,000 in revenue,' Rapp said.

'That amount is significant. It's not only the membership fee, it's also the regular users.'

Rapp said the centre will be closed from Feb. 19 to March 17.

The Games will run Feb. 23-March 10.

The time before and after the Games, she added, would see 'staggered' closures of certain areas of the facility as equipment is taken in and moved out.

Coun. Doug Graham said last Thursday that economically speaking, he feels the centre will lose closer to two months of revenue.

He said monthly pass holders like himself would likely not buy a monthly pass in either February or March because of the partial closures.

'I'm not going to pay them a monthly fee, and I don't think others will be either,' he said.

Graham said Games centre budgeting was one of his major concerns with the recently-tabled municipal budget because 2007 revenue projections for the centre nearly mirror the figures for 2006.

Graham said there were similar issues in last year's budget when revenue and expenditure projections for the Games centre were off and the figures had to be adjusted by about $1.5 million.

At their May 15, 2006 meeting, members of city council voted in favour of amending the city's budget in line with a change in revenue and expenditure projections at the Games centre.

According to documents from the city's finance office, council adjusted the budget using several measures, including:

reducing the portion of the comprehensive grant from the Yukon government to capital reserves by $520,000;

reducing the budget transfer to the contingency reserve by $11,000;

increasing lease revenue at the centre by $100,000;

adding $100,000 for leasehold improvements at the centre to the capital budget, funded by deleting several projects including the class Internet project, Games centre cold entry and the leisure services plan;

reducing the parks department office supply budget by $15,000;

raising budgeted property tax revenue by $127,000;

reducing various Games centre revenues by $549,000;

increasing various Games centre expenses by $224,000.

Graham said given the changes made last year to the budget due to the Games centre, Whitehorse residents could expect the same this year.

'If we were to budget honestly, we would have asked for a seven or eight per cent (tax increase in this year's budget),' he said.

'We'll be back later this year and we'll end up asking for more money, just like we did last year.

'We should be telling people the truth, and we haven't been from day one.'

Graham said other city departments were effectively subsidizing the Games centre.

City manager Dennis Shewfelt said last Thursday that 2007 revenue expectations at the centre are slightly less than what's outlined in the 2006 budget.

In 2006, Shewfelt said, the city's projections for revenue at the Games centre were $1.9 million.

The actual revenues, he added, are still being calculated.

The projections for revenue at the facility for 2007 are budgeted at $1.7 million, Shewfelt said.