User fees for Air Ronge residents will once again be front and centre at a town meeting. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

municipal update

Recreation fees, new fire trucks up for discussion at La Ronge meeting

Sep 8, 2025 | 4:29 PM

La Ronge council will reconsider their plan to charge Air Ronge residents special user rates at the Mel Hegland Uniplex at a regular meeting at the town office this evening.

On behalf of the uniplex user groups, Brendon Zarazun of Crushers Hockey, submitted an application to speak as a delegation alongside Air Ronge representation at the meeting to requesting a temporary pause of the $1,000 Air Ronge user fee until April 1, 2026, while regional communities engage in discussions towards what he considers a fair and equitable recreation cost sharing strategy.

“This pause would be conditional on the four regional communities taking meaningful steps towards resolution over the next seven months,” he wrote in his application letter.

“For any required specific conditions to the temporary pause, I will request they be made during the next scheduled meeting of the four communities on Sept 11.”

In June, all La Ronge council members voted in favour of amending a policy related to recreational fees to require individual village residents to pay more when attending events hosted by, or occurring, on town properties. It came after the town was unable to successfully come up with a recreation agreement with the village that they deemed equitable.

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Beginning this month, village residents enrolled in an activity that uses the Mel Hegland Uniplex will be charged $1,000 per season, or if they enrolled in an activity that uses town outdoor facilities, at $100 per activity. In addition, renting a town facility will be increased by 300 per cent of the applicable regular rate, and village resident registration in town programs will be at 100 per cent cost recovery.

In addition to the delegation, town council will discuss purchasing a new wildland fire truck at the cost of $840,000, as well as two new command trucks at a yet to be determined price. Documents from town administration states one the command trucks experienced a failure during the Pisew Wildfire event when the engine went into low power mode and reduced its speed to 20 kilometers per hour.

“Fortunately, this happened near the fire hall and not near the head of the wildfire, or it would have put staff at serious risk,” the document notes.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com