A move to require all monthly pass holders at the Canada Games Centre to pay by electronic fund transfer (EFT) will lead to fewer people using the city's new $45-million facility and an increased burden on the public purse.

That's the opinion of city councillor Doug Graham. He said he feels citizens using the Canada Games Centre should be provided with more payment options to use the centre, not less.

At Tuesday night's city council meeting, Linda Rapp, the city's manager of parks and recreation, informed council of her department's intention to require all monthly passes at the Games centre be paid by EFT.

According to council documents, the move to EFT for monthly passes is to cut down on administrative costs.

'The Canada Games Centre operation was designed on a membership model and the monthly membership fee was designed as the best option.

'The intent of this membership was to have it available to members who paid for this option through the electronic funds transfer (EFT) system ... this was not implemented immediately upon opening for a number of operational reasons,' council documents state.

EFT is a system of direct payment where fees, charges or bill payments are automatically withdrawn from a person's bank account on a specific day of the month.

'Continuing to offer this rate to monthly members who do not select the EFT option would cause excessive administrative time and lineups at the reception desk. It is also a proven loss of revenue,' council documents state.

Rapp said this morning the EFT plan has been on the table since Games centre price structures were first discussed and was designed to keep the facility's memberships cheaper by cutting out the administrative costs.

'The notion of the monthly passes, since the beginning, was set up for the electronic funds transfer. That's why the prices were set as low as they were.

'When people pay month by month, there's a lot of extra administrative costs. First the money goes to the customer service rep, who has to manually enter it into the computer; then the money goes to the customer service rep's supervisor, who deals with the cash; and then the money has to go over to financial services, where it can be processed,' Rapp said.

'(The current payment option) is a three-step process; electronic withdrawal is free of administration.'

Rapp said the plan for Games centre monthly fee payments, which has yet to be approved by city council, means staff would no longer be accepting month-by-month payments for passes.

People who wanted to cancel their monthly memberships, she added, would still be able do so at anytime. Once the pass was cancelled, the city would stop taking payments via EFT.

The practice of mandatory EFT payments, Rapp added, is standard amongst private gyms and fitness centres in Canada.

'If people are resistant to giving their bank information, then there's still the option of buying an annual pass, daily membership or the 10-punch pass,' she said.

'There's nothing new up there, it's being run like any other facility of its type in the country.'

Graham said this morning requiring all citizens looking to buy a monthly pass to pay by EFT limits their options and could result in fewer people using the Games centre.

'I think what bothers me more than anything is they make no allowance for people who want to come on a monthly basis. Some people prefer to pay in cash; make that available, it's not a big deal,' Graham said.

'We're a municipality, not only do we have to do what's good for administration, we have to do what's good for our citizens.

'One of the things we have to do is come up with a monthly fee. It's gotta be there, otherwise, we're going to lose members.'

He said he is concerned the $773,000 in increased costs for the Games centre, announced in May, will likely mean the facility will require more tax dollars to operate.

Earlier this year, city council was informed that due to higher than expected operating costs, and lower than expected revenues, the Games centre was projected to cost taxpayers $773,000 more a year to run.

In May, city council learned the city's revenues, originally projected at $2.3 million a year, will likely be $549,000 lower than anticipated.

Council also learned the original estimate of $3.8 million to run the centre will likely rise by $224,000.

Graham said he felt Whitehorse should come up with its own model instead of using information from different multiplex facilities in Canada.

'News flash: Whitehorse is not Sherwood Park (Alta.), it's not Calgary and it's not Edmonton. Those types of places have a higher population than Whitehorse's 23,000 meaning they had a larger number of potential users.'

At last night's meeting, Coun. Jan Stick and Coun. Bev Buckway said they didn't really see a problem with the EFT plan.

'They can just cancel and then reapply. It's not that drastic,' Buckway said.

'I understand what the principle is. Most people wouldn't stop some would and some wouldn't,' Stick added.