Skiers, councillor want better access to public trails at Royal Mayfair Golf Club

Citizens and a city councillor are expressing concern over accessibility to public cross-country skiing trails at the Royal Mayfair Golf Club.

Cross-country skiing is available at parks and golf courses in Edmonton, and a popular location for the sport is the Royal Mayfair Golf Club.

The club leases the river valley land from the City of Edmonton, and must provide access to the trails as part of a recent agreement that extended the lease to 2069.

• City extends Royal Mayfair Golf Course lease until 2069

Some Edmontonians who came out to enjoy the warm weather after the recent deep freeze felt less than welcome at the course. Signage there asks the public to park at Hawrelak Park or Emily Murphy Park while construction on the clubhouse is happening.

“For the safety of all public members and for liability reasons, we ask the public to use two different access points to the club this year - Hawrelak Park and Emily Murphy Park,” said Wade Hudyma, the general manager of the Royal Mayfair Golf Club. “This is a temporary measure and next year, parking will be back open for everyone to use, when it is safe to do so and the construction is complete.”

“We want to be encouraging as many Edmontonians as possible to come out and ski, enjoy the central location, to come out and enjoy the beauty of the river valley,” said Michael Janz, the councillor for Ward Papastew.

The club’s main parking lot has some construction equipment in it, but the secondary lot typically used for cross country skiers is blocked with pylons. Tuesday, someone had moved a pylon, so skiers could use the lot.

“Not having this parking lot open really makes it non-functional as a significant ski area for Edmontonians,” said Tom Hinch, a recreational cross country skier.

Another skier, Judy, told CTV News Edmonton it sends the wrong message.

“It says, ‘We do not want you skiing here, do not come here, you are not welcome here.’ You can be certain they don’t tell their golfers in the summer to park at Hawrelak and carry their golf clubs.”

“It is a very beautiful golf course, beautiful old, old trees, probably the prettiest golf course in the city,” Judy continued. “And it’s mine, as a citizen of Edmonton I kind of own this land so I feel I have a right to enjoy it sometimes… legally I do, but it’s not necessarily in the minds of some to fulfill their part of a contract they signed.”

The club grooms trails on the golf course for skiers, which are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to the club’s general manager.

According to Janz, this is the latest issue in a list of problems the general public has reported to city council about accessing land available for public use.

“I’m receiving a number of complaints from residents who are being told or discouraged or gated from coming to ski at what is supposed to be the city’s ski spot,” said Janz. “So the golf course is not keeping up their side of the deal and they are ostensibly discouraging skiers from coming and participating in what should be theirs and it’s very frustrating and city council’s going to need to take a look at this.”

A few months after the city and the club signed the revised lease agreement in 2019, members of the public had issues booking a tee time in the summer. The agreement says about one in 12 rounds of golf should be available to the public.

• Another round of debate over Royal Mayfair Club lease

“We need to enforce fairness and we need to enforce transparency. Edmontonians have a right to ski on this course, they have a right to ski at predictable hours, with fair conditions and accessible parking,” said Janz. “What the club is continuing to do is enshrine their personal privilege ahead of the public interest and that’s a problem.

“If they’re not going to uphold their side of the deal then the city really needs to have a conversation about that, about what the future of the club is.”

Hudyma maintained the club is “in full compliance with our lease.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson