Prince Albert City Hall (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Budget 2026

City starts budget process with presentations by agencies, including golf club

Oct 22, 2025 | 3:14 PM

The Prince Albert Golf and Curling Club was first on the agenda of organizations presenting requests to city council at the start of budget season.

The PAGCC asked the city for a $30,000 operating grant next year as they complete a reconfiguring of their operations to become more financially efficient.

“This support is critical to help PAGCC recover from unexpected expenses and underwhelming revenue performance from the Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs)—during the 2024/25 fiscal year,” wrote Board Chair John Toner in the request.

The golf course board recognized over a year ago that some changes were needed in order to stay operational after losses sustained during the pandemic. The costs of buying food and utilities increased as did wages.

The board brought in VLTs, normally a guaranteed revenue generator for venues, made some changes to their deck to make it more inviting and decided to contract out the restaurant operations, which are being led by the owner of Shenanigans Bistro.

Water levels

Normal spring runoff predicted despite recent snowfall

A few minutes ago

Responsive measures

Some Sask. farmers to get winter elk hunting permits next year to protect land

2h ago

Death of an inmate

Murderer Jason McKay dies while in custody at Sask. Penitentiary

2h ago

Decisions were made based on what they were told by several finance companies, including the local credit union.

The changes have paid off. The club no longer needs its line of credit and is operating with a positive cash flow but then they needed to spend money on restaurant equipment that was not up to par when the new leasee took over.

Terminating 33 employees (later re-hired by the new operator) meant another $20,000 in unplanned expenses.

The board had calculated the staff change as not costing anything because they were given four weeks of notice but learned during the process that laying off more than nine employees comes with costs. In this case, it was an extra $20,000.

No decisions on funding are made during presentation. Council takes the information and uses during their budget deliberations, which are coming up soon.

—

susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com