The Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon may be forced to consider charging admission so it can go ahead with a major overhaul and expansion.

Saskatoon city council voted Monday night to cover the higher maintenance costs the public gallery faces with the $18-million expansion.

The Mendel plans a revamp that includes new exhibit space for the cramped gallery, state-of-the-art equipment and upgrades for wheelchair accessibility.

In September, an independent auditor said the Mendel's maintenance budget would increase by $500,000 a year, to about $650,000 annually, if the expansion goes ahead.

The gallery needed the city to agree to pay the higher maintenance costs before it could take money from other levels of government for the expansion.

But city councillors raised the issue of admission fees, which are not now charged at the gallery.

"Well, it comes basically down to dollars and cents," said Coun. Myles Heidt.

"I mean, someone needs to pay the freight, and quite frankly I'm hearing from a lot of people that the Mendel people should start paying their fair share. Right now there's free admission and a lot of people, including myself, don't support that anymore."

Council has left it up to the Mendel board to decide whether admission should be charged.

Terry Fenton, a former director of the Mendel, said art should be free for everyone to see.

"If you're going to charge admission to the Mendel, you might as well charge admission to the public library. I think they perform very similar functions," he said in an interview with CBC Radio.

"All you're going to do by charging admission is drive away some people who can't afford to come."

Last July, gallery director Terry Graff said an $18-million upgrade to the Mendel building was needed  because of lack of proper climate controls.

Most of the collection, including a Lawren Harris painting, is at risk if the facility is not upgraded, he said.

The Saskatoon gallery suffered a fire late last year that closed it for several weeks.

City administration says if the Mendel can't raise some of the money through admission fees, the increased maintenance cost would need to be paid through a tax hike.