The inaugural year of seasonal moorage at Bear Cove Marina has been deemed a success.
“Revenue generated from activities at Bear Cove Recreational Site in 2014 and 2015 was $1,826.00,” said Chief Administrative Officer Allison McCarrick. “In 2016, with the addition of reserved moorage, the revenue was $6,978,” McCarrick said.
“Having said that, expenses continue to outweigh revenues. The District does provide service at this site at a deficit averaging approximately $20,000 annually,” she added.
This summer, seasonal moorage was introduced on June 1 and was charged on a daily rate basis for a duration of between one to 10 days. Charter boat operators with a valid Port Hardy business licence were offered a monthly reserved moorage rate.
Caretakers provide various services including booking reservations, collecting moorage fees, security and daily operations from June 1 to Sept. 5 in lieu of paying moorage for their commercial business the ‘Bait Shack’, parking for their on-site trailer and hydro charges for each.
The District of Port Hardy operations crew provided all repairs and maintenance work for the facility, including the installation of ramp grating.
Overnight parking on ferry nights proved to be problematic, so increased security was authorized by the district for those nights. The Bear Cove moorage proved to be extremely successful.
Fifty per cent of the reservation were for three to five days; 25 per cent were for 10 days or more; and 25 per cent were other durations. The district is proposing to reconfigure the moorage slips to increase the number of spots to 18 from 15; offer five daily moorage sites (no change); and reduce the number of charter boat slips to two from five.
The district will also be increasing 2017 moorage rates for weekly reservations to $13.80 per metre, per week; it will eliminate monthly moorage rates; and there will be a new contractual agreement with charter boat operators. There will be no change to the daily rates which are $2.45 per metre, per day.
Council approved the changes at their regular meeting Nov. 8.