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A door-to-door raffle ticket-selling scheme that is used by the Association de Ringuette Deux-Montagnes as a means of raising additional funds for ice time at the municipal arena has angered at least one parent enough to send her complaining to the Quebec agency that regulates games of chance. “For each child they’re given five packs of tickets to sell,” said Vicky Gormley, whose10-year-old daughter, Sierra, plays for the Coyotes de Deux-Montagnes.
No door-to-door, says mom
But rather than see her daughter selling the tickets door to door, Gormley took the only other option the association offered — which was to pay $100 out of her own pocket. “There’s a parent in here who has four kids,” Gormley said. “He still has 17 booklets to sell. Me personally, I do not want my child going door to door to sell booklets. So then they’ve offering me to pay $100.
“I’m sorry, no. They make it obligatory and I prefer it not being. I’d prefer it be voluntary. It becomes too much after a while. It’s becoming more mandatory to give money to the association. At one point it was three books. Now it’s up to five. Last year I had 14 to sell and it’s too much. My oldest one decided to go somewhere to play because she didn’t want to be involved with this.” Gormley is not totally alone in objecting to the association’s method of raising funds above and beyond the regular $130 fee charged for registration.
Not alone
Alan Meindersma, whose daughter has also played ringuette, first broached the issue in Two Mountains town council last November. This past July, he returned and complained to Mayor Marc Lauzon, in view of the fact the association receives at least $16,000 in municipal subsidies annually, but nonetheless has to make up for a shortfall in its operating costs by holding the raffle. Gormley said she didn’t think it was right to “go after the town because they’re doing their part.
“I’ve checked with the Régie d’alcool and gaming and I understand that you need a permit to do the raffles, which they have, but you cannot obligate parents to sell tickets. But I don’t have that in writing yet. They’re supposed to be doing an investigation on that one. I cannot get that in writing until they do their little investigation.” The brewing controversy has an added political dimension. Denis Martin, who was an unsuccessful candidate for town council running with defeated mayoralty hopeful Stéphane Plante in the 2005 municipal election, recently joined the board of the ringuette association as manager for ice time.
A political twist
At the same time, he has recently been contemplating whether to become involved in Two Mountains’s current electoral race as a candidate for mayor. “I’m new in the organization,” he said in an interview with NSN. “There’s a cost to the association at the end of the year for tournaments and stuff.” Martin suspects there might not be a problem if the ringuette association were to receive more funding from the town. “I think we wouldn’t have this issue maybe if the city were to give more money,” he said. “You have to look at the cost of the icing.
“The city sells the ice to the association and for the residents of Two Mountains they give back some money.” Daniel Lavallée, the association’s president, declined to be interviewed for this article, but referred the matter to another board member, Mona Bellefleur, who is responsible for public relations. “We have to pay for the ice time to the Town of Two Moutains and ice time is very expensive,” she said. “The town pays for a part. They pay for the girls who are from Deux-Montagnes and we have to cover all the other expenses.
Association doing its best
“We have to pay for referees and things like that.” Bellefleur said the association could have opted to increase the registration fee by $100, but chose not to. “We have families who have four children playing ringuette,” she said. “Imagine how expensive that would be for them. Since we’re trying to encourage kids getting involved in sports, we have tried to do things in such a way that as many people as possible can play.” Bellefleur said some of the girls succeed in selling as many as 50 booklets of the raffle tickets.
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