The city is still “far from a decision” when it comes to the future of the Lively Ski Hill, Ward 2 Coun. Eric Benoit told Sudbury.com this week.
“I have high hopes for it continuing to operate,” he said, adding that attendance has jumped significantly this year, thanks in large part to a community effort to draw people to the slopes.
Sudbury.com reached out to Benoit for his reaction to the city filing a request for expression of interest for the Lively Ski Hill's private operation, which closes on March 26.
This doesn’t mean the municipal ski hill’s fate is sealed, he clarified, noting that the city is using it to gather information to help fuel city council’s final decision, which is expected by June.
The request for an expression of interest follows through on a city council directive to staff in August 2024, when they voted to maintain the Lively Ski Hill for at least another season.
The results of the expression of interest for its private operations will join usage data, revenue generation, costs of operations and other information in a municipal report to aid city council’s final decision on the Lively Ski Hill, which is expected to take place by June.
“It’s to fully understand what the situation fully looks like,” Benoit said, adding that having a potential company lined up to manage the Lively Ski Hill by this summer would give them a headstart in the event they were to take over by the start of the 2025-26 season.
That said, he clarified that the community has come out in droves to support the city maintaining the Lively Ski Hill, most notably during this season’s themed Friday Fun Nights.
“With how the community’s been there, we’ve definitely seen a lot of value in it,” he said.
Complicating matters is the city’s work on developing a new recreational amenity in the Lively area to replace Meatbird Lake Park. The city has narrowed in on three potential locations for the $4-million investment, including the Lively Ski Hill property.
City council is anticipated to make a final decision on this project in mid-2025. It’s currently unclear what relevance this might have to city council’s Lively Ski Hill decision.
The Lively Ski Hill’s low user rates and cost recovery drew city council’s attention last year, prompting the ongoing review anticipated to close with a final city council decision by June.
The city is in the process of repurposing the old ski lift from the Capreol ski hill, which closed several years ago, to replace the lift currently in place in Lively, which is at end of life.
Preparatory work for the ski lift repurposing will still take place this year, Benoit said, with the city maintaining the ability to pull out midway in the event they decide against maintaining the recreational amenity.
Although Benoit said “there are a lot of moving pieces,” the community has made it clear that they want to keep their ski hill.
In the city’s expression of interest documents, it’s noted that ski hills are a “special service uniquely offered by the City of Greater Sudbury which could be outsourced to a private or not-for-profit third-party provider,” according to a 2020 Core Services Review by KPMG.
In 2023, the Lively Ski Hill recorded a cost-recovery of 6.7 per cent ($15,846 in user fee income against an expense of $237,087, yielding a net tax levy impact of $221,241).
Meanwhile, the Adanac Ski Hill (the city’s other of two municipal ski hills) recorded a cost-recovery of 93 per cent ($555,164 in user fee income against an expense of $598,315, yielding a net tax levy impact of $43,151).
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.