Sudbury, Ontario — It was looking bleak last summer for the Lively Ski Hill.
With only 715 paid users during the 2023-24 ski season, the City of Sudbury was considering shutting down the ski hill for good. However, locals stepped up to save the ski hill for one more season. Led by Ward 2 Councilor Eric Benoit, a group of locals was able to increase paid visitation to 4052 individuals during the 2024-25 season.
The Sudbury Star reported last week that the city voted to keep the ski hill open and continue to have it be the owner and operator. This followed the city staff members’ recommendation that Sudbury continue to own and operate the ski area the week prior.
As part of the city’s plan to grow revenue, they plan to increase lift tickets and season passes. The city will increase adult lift tickets from $22 to 27 CAD, and youth/senior lift tickets from $3.50 to $22 CAD. Season passes have risen from $205 to $328 CAD for adults, and $182 to $291 CAD for kids and the elderly.
While these price increases are significant, improvements are planned. Two major projects are planned at the ski area in the future, with the city planning to spend roughly $800,000 CAD on the upgrades. The first is the replacement of the existing surface lift (t-bar) with a platter-pull lift that’s from the defunct Capreol ski hill. This project will cost $387,000 CAD.
The second project, with a cost of around $396,000 CAD, is to renovate the base lodge. However, this project is delayed until they figure out how they’re going to allocate the $4 million CAD generated from the sale of Meatbird Lake Park. A consideration is to add a water feature over at Lively Ski Hill to bring people over there in the offseason. After that situation figures itself out, it seems likely they’ll then do the renovations.
Shout-out to the Sudbury community for their hard work in keeping this little ski hill afloat.
Image Credits: Lively Ski Hill
