Whitehorse Daily Star

Mayor poised to sign Sima agreement

The mayor will sign off on the agreement with the territorial government on funding for the city's only ski hill.

By Stephanie Waddell on October 16, 2008

The mayor will sign off on the agreement with the territorial government on funding for the city's only ski hill.

At Tuesday evening's city council meeting, members voted unanimously for it, Mayor Bev Buckway said in an interview Wednesday.

The agreement is worth a total of $200,000 for the Great Northern Ski Society's Mount Sima facility. It will flow from the territory to a city recreation grant that will then be directed to the ski hill.

The arrangement came forward Tuesday with a few changes to the original document council had seen a week earlier.

There were some sections, such as one around security checks, that weren't relevant to this agreement, but had originally been in there since a standard funding form was used.

Council raised concerns last week around having those sections included in the agreement. After it did so, city and territorial government staff deleted those portions to create the document Buckway will sign, she said.

The funds will be distributed over the fall, in order for Mount Sima to open for the winter.

The ski hill shut down last January after only a few days' operation amid weather, safety and staffing issues that arose.

Since then, there's been a restructuring of the society board which operates the hill.

Normally, the society would use the revenue from the sale of early-season passes and punch cards to open Mount Sima for the season.

With last season's early closure, the hill is honouring last year's passes and punch cards.

The society also recently received funding from Lotteries Yukon and additional money from the city.

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