Sports and recreation groups in Ontario’s York Region that rent space at public schools are scrambling after recently learning their fees have gone up exponentially.
Tony Koubridis is the permit holder for a weekly men’s basketball group that has met for almost 30 years on Friday nights at Aurora High School.
In the 2025-26 season, Magee Basketball League paid $1,500 in rental fees. In August, they found out their rate for the upcoming school year would be $13,897, he said.
“It wasn’t a small jump, to go from $1,500 to $14,000 in one year is insane,” Koubridis told CP24.
He said that amounts to the annual fee for the group’s 25 regular members jumping from $75 to $350.
“We’ve now basically cancelled the league,” said Koubridis, adding because they only learned of the significant hike a week or so before the season was to begin, they haven’t been able to find alternate space.
York North Basketball Association (YNBA) is a not-for-profit youth organization that has rented gyms at public and Catholic schools in Newmarket and Aurora for more than 25 years. Its president, Stephen Paine said they’re facing a roughly $185,000 shortfall for the upcoming season due to a rental fee increase, which they only found out about last month.
Essentially, annual membership fees will be going up by a one-third, he said, from just under $2,000 to around $3,000.
“We’re going to lose kids. … Already our house league registrations are down by about 100 kids,” said Paine. “We’re a not-for-profit. We don’t have the resources to absorb this increase in fees,” he said.
Paine said the challenge faced by his group is complicated by the fact the reducing the number of gyms they rent could also mean risking losing hard-to-come-by spaces for good.
“This is all causing major stress,” he said.
The reason why rental fees are increasing so significantly is due to the loss of subsidies from the York Region District School Board (YRDSB), which Paine said covered around 64 per cent of their rental fees. The province also provides subsidies but they only amount to around seven per cent, he said.
In the 2025-26 school year, YNBA paid around $12 an hour for a double gym. That fee has now jumped to $83, Paine said, as well as an additional $40 caretaking fee, making their hourly rental rate now more than $120.
YRDSB says it’s no longer in ‘position’ to offer subsidies
Licinio Miguelo, a YRDSB spokesperson, attributed the increase in permit fees to a decline in enrollment, saying that is why the board is no longer in a “position” able to offer subsidies.
“To ensure that funds intended for students and programs are properly allocated to support schools and classrooms, permit fees have been adjusted to reflect their actual costs. This results in permits being cost-neutral for the board,” he wrote in an email to CP24.
“These rate adjustments are part of a multi-year process that began in September of 2025. We recognize that this may be difficult for some community organizations, YRDSB remains committed to support community partnerships and will continue to support not-for-profit permit holders in exploring options.”
CP24 has also reached out to the Ontario Ministry of Education but we have not heard back.
