Funding for Mount Sima raised something of a mini-feud among the five members of city council present for Monday evening's meeting.

At the end of the night, the city's capital budget was amended to formally approve an additional $1.3 million in funding to complement the $1.65 million already approved last year to help turn the ski hill into a year-round operation.

But when it came to another $40,000 the Great Northern Ski Society applied for this spring to improve mountain biking trails – of which $23,360 was recommended for acceptance – Mount Sima hit the wall.

Coun. Betty Irwin has been flat-out opposed to the $3 million in capital funding provided by the city to bail out the ski society. She has suggested the ski hill is for those who can afford what amounts to be a sport few can afford.

"We are flowing money to Mount Sima that really should go to capital funding,” Irwin told her colleagues. The other four voted against her and accepted the amended capital budget to include the additional $1.3 million required to complete the new ZOOM zip-line and the Wild Play Monkido Aerial Park.

Mayor Bev Buckway and Coun. Ranj Pillai were absent last night.

When it came to the $40,000 application for trail improvement, Irwin ripped into the ski society for having the nerve to come forward for even more money, and she wasn't standing alone.

The councillor said she was surprised last week when she saw the application to the city's recreation committee, which is responsible for recommending which non-profit organizations should receive grant funding.

"It was my understanding the city was funding Mount Sima all that it should,” she said of the additional $1.3 million informally approved last month by everybody on council but her. "I could not believe the society was coming forward to the city and asking for more money.”

Both councillors Kirk Cameron and Dave Stockdale helped form the majority of opposition to the trail grant when they too said there were under the impression the $1.3 million approved last month was it this year for the ski society.

Stockdale suggested the society has received a significant amount of money, and has a lot to prove with the funding it has received.

Perhaps, he said, he might feel differently after he sees what the facility accomplishes over the summer months.

"I did not expect to see another application,” Cameron said.

He supported the $3 million in capital funding because of the importance of Mount Sima to the community, he added, and the potential to become a year-round tourism draw.

Cameron also emphasized the city owns Mount Sima, though it's operated by the ski society.

If the ski hill was permitted to slip into the deep because of decrepit equipment and a lack of capital funding to revamp and expand the facility, the fallout would land squarely on the city's shoulders, he said.

Coun. Dave Austin fired back against Cameron, Irwin and Stockdale for their dissenting votes.

He suggested the councillors were mixing apples and oranges, at the expense of council's relationship with the recreation committee .

The city, said Austin, has empowered the committee with the authority to review and recommend applications for funding, based on a strict set of guidelines that city council has provided.

Austin argued an application for an annual program grant is not the same as the capital funding being provided – not in any way, shape or forum.

It can't be viewed as such, and if it was, then perhaps the city should reject all applications for multi-year funding, the councillor snidely remarked.

Like Austin, Coun. Florence Roberts defended the work of the committee. She suggested capital funding for the ski hill and grant funding is nothing more than what the city puts toward the Canada Games Centre.

Like the ski hill, Roberts said, the city provides the same sort of support for the Mount McIntyre Recreational Centre, which it also owns and maintains, and provides annual grant funding to.

Perhaps, said Stockdale, in three years or so, Mount Sima will be a glowing success story.

"They will be solvent, and they will not be asking for any more money, and it will be a wonderful day,” the councillor said. "The trumpets will be blowing, the flags will be flying and the premier will be skiing merrily down the hill.”

"I will gladly stand on Main Street and eat my words when that happens, Councillor,” Irwin retorted.

A joint $3-million initiative between city hall and the ski society was announced a year ago to replace the aging and unreliable chairlift, and to install the zip-line and aerial park to make Mount Sima a year-round facility.

The city agreed to put up $1.65 million, and the society was to raise the other $1.35 million through corporate sponsorship, private donations and fund-raisers.

City council had originally set aside the initial $1.65 million for the Black Street reconstruction.

Members of council, with the exception of Irwin, agreed to redirect the money toward Mount Sima when $1.65 million in federal money came through for the Black Street project.

It was revealed last month the ski society still needed another $1.3 million. Six of the seven members of council agreed to take $1.3 million from the city's asphalt overlay program and redirect it to Mount Sima after learning the city was receiving more federal funding to offset the cost of its asphalt program.