The city's only ski hill could lose another season if the funding it's requested of the city and territorial government doesn't come through.

"The longer we delay, basically the shorter the window becomes to the point there's no time left and then there's the bigger issue of the loss of the ski hill to the community," Keith Thaxter, president of the Great Northern Ski Society, said in an interview Monday night after he addressed city council.

The society operates Mount Sima.

Word on at least the city's funding, could be known by next week when council votes on whether to grant the $25,000-request, as city staff is recommending it do.

"If we have to put a firm date, I'd say that the end of August would be a key date to have a plan in place to start the repairs," Thaxter said in an interview outside council chambers.

"If we get much further, even with the funding, we're running out of time this season to start the repairs because as you get into the fall, you're running into the resources may not be available."

Thaxter joined Parks and Recreation manager Linda Rapp as she presented the report to council last night recommending the grant be approved for the society and look at providing in-kind services to deal with equipment repairs and maintenance.

The funding requests to both the city and the territory come after the hill shut down for the season last January after only a few days of operation due to equipment issues, weather and numerous other factors.

The hill's winter opening is normally funded by the sale of pre-opening season passes and punch cards.

However, the society has been left seeking funding elsewhere after promising to honour 2007/2008 season pass and punch cards in the 2008/2009 season.

As the society waits for word on the city grant, it is also expecting to hear from the territorial government soon on other funding after a recent meeting with Community Services Minister Archie Lang.

Thaxter cannot release details on the meeting, sayng he had agreed not to discuss it.

The society had applied for the funding during the regular spring session for recreation grants with the city.

However, the task force recommending grant approvals to council stated members didn't feel comfortable making a recommendation and brought it forward for the city to make a decision on its own.

In July, Great Northern Ski Society members approved a new board structure. The board now includes stakeholders like Rapp, who represents the city (which owns the land), and representatives of ski and snowboard organizations, the local ski patrol, the general public and the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce, among others.

While work is being done to secure funding, Thaxter said, the society is also working to line things up so that as soon as it knows cash is coming through, the physical work to get things going next winter can start.

A report last year by Kirk Duncan of Juneau's Eaglecrest resort outlined a number of repairs needed as well as ways to move the hill toward self-sufficiency.

While repairs to the hill's snow-making equipment could be made locally, the society has been in discussions with Summit Lift Co. of Kelowna, B.C., to have someone come up to do the repairs to the lift with the hopes of training locals on some of the lift work as well.

In 2006, a Summit staffer travelled to the territory on 24 hours' notice to fix a problem with the chair lift, giving up their New Year's holiday period to fix it, Thaxter said.

While some thought was given to continuing to work with Duncan, he's not available, and his certification may not be valid in Canada, Thaxter explained.

Part of Thaxter's work in preparing for the funding to be approved, for example, has been to get in touch with Air North to ensure a seat would be available on a Vancouver flight to the territory before the end of the month to do a pre-inspection of the hill and perform some work in early September.

"That's all subject to approval," he said, noting he's in touch with Summit every few days.

If the hill loses another season, it would likely be even more difficult to regain the community's trust and start up the following year, Thaxter said.

Along with the loss it would be to ski and snowboard teams training for events like the Arctic Winter Games, he said, many kids are "lost" without their skiing/snowboarding through the winter.

Securing the funding to make the repairs and thus open this season would mean the hill could also start looking at its long-term plans to keep full-time staff all year.

While the requests to the city and territory would deal with Sima's more immediate needs, a funding request to the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development has been made to address the long-term five-year plan. It would look at how to manage the hill and move toward self-sufficiency.

Part of the funding request to the territorial government would deal with attracting the right staff to Sima who could move it forward to operating all year.

"We have to look big," Thaxter said. "The resort has developed to the point it can no longer be run as a small operation. It has to be run as a business."

Looking at it as a business, Thaxter said there are many opportunities, and work has to be done on looking at how money can be made during the summer to have extra cash to help run it through the winter.

This summer, Sima has been renting out its chalet for weddings and events and later this month will be the site of a mountain biking event put on by Icycle Sports.

"It's a good match for summer activities," Rapp said.

It was Icycle that approached Sima about hosting the competition there, but looking to the long term, Thaxter envisions similar events happening over the years, perhaps with the chairlift in operation, taking tourists up to the top to take in the view, for a hike and moving cyclists up with their bikes.

"There's so much you could do with that resort," Thaxter said.

The tight budget the hill has had meant only hiring a general manager for the ski season, which often resulted in the managers leaving when a full-time job opens up elsewhere, Thaxter noted.

"There's no reason that if we can prepare a quality product that they will come," Thaxter said of the plans for the hill.