Attachment 1 – Letter from YMCA to Westhills Dated February 17, 2023

Attachment 1 – Letter from YMCA to Westhills Dated February 17, 2023

From

YMCA-YWCA
Vancouver Island
Association Services
202-1314 Lakepoint Way
Langford, BC | V9B 0S2
Ph: 250-386-7511 ext 440

To

Ryan McKenzie, Westhills Land Corporation

CONFIDENTIAL
957 Langford Parkway
Langford, BC V9B 0A5

sent by e-maill to rmckenzie@westhillslandcorp.com

February 17, 2023
cc to Darren Kiedyk, City of Langford and Deb Moore, Breakwater Realty Inc.

Letter

Dear Ryan,

Thank you for the response dated February 14, 2022. Our Board is convening next week and will consider your comments and suggestions, including the opportunity to meet with representatives from WLC. We continue to work closely with the City of Langford to advocate for increased funding and support that could help us to reach a sustainable level of operations under the current lease. The process emerging there promises an opportunity to more clearly communicate the value of this facility to the community, clarify our capacity to deliver services in the current context and show a path forward together.

In terms of an update on our operations, January was a good month, relative to earlier periods, with the addition of approximately 500 new members at the Westhills Y (bringing our total here to almost 6200 individuals, with almost 10,000 between our branches) demonstrating to us that our efforts to increase membership are working. It is also noteworthy that our membership consists of 70% Langford residents. We have not yet reached the $200K monthly membership level referenced in our earlier letter, but are inching closer and February growth has been strong. Despite growth, this branch of our operations continues to lose significant money each month; the fixed occupancy costs being one of our biggest expense items.

To the comment about operating hours, as part of our planning, we have extended both weekday and weekend opening and closing times as of February 21st, and we continue to work to add programming and capacity as we monitor activities and as we strive to find enough employees. While internal capacity is limited, our marketing efforts are ongoing, in terms of electronic, print and bus ads in circulation, we have expanded our social media presence and we have been offering promotional days, like the recent Free on the 5th days, encouraging guest pass usage and swim promotions. The recent Westhills sponsored contest for a free family membership promoted on social media was well received. Camp Thunderbird registrations recently opened and we have had a good response to this year’s offerings so far. Our other programs, including the $10 per day childcare at the Westhills Y are going as expected.

Further to your request, I also enclose a copy of our 2022 year end consolidated financial results, including income statement and balance sheet. These results are still unaudited, and subject to further likely additional year end adjustments, but should provide a bit more indication of our continued financial challenges here, especially with the loss of government pandemic supports. The Board continues to impose restrictions on our assets which will be more accurately reflected in the presentation and notes of our audited statements, as in previous years.

We remain committed to making progress toward a solution with the City of Langford in the near term and that we can work to address your concerns as we continue to serve the growing and evolving community here. Thank you for your continued engagement.

Best regards,

Derek Gent, Chief Executive Officer