Is Thorold using all of its allocated ice time at the new Walker Sports and Abilities Centre in the Canada Games Park?
That question took centre stage at Tuesday’s city council meeting during a discussion on subsidized ice rates for select community user groups.
City Hall wants to offer subsidized prime time user rates at the new arena for the Thorold Amateur Athletic Association (TAAA), Thorold Figure Skating Club (TFSC), and Matrix Synchronized Skating Teams.
The subsidy would ensure user groups pay the exact same rate as they do at the Frank Doherty Arena: $226 per hour.
City Hall is focusing on these groups because they are all not-for-profit, are geared towards youth under the age of 21, and more than 70 per cent of their members are Thorold residents.
“This extended subsidy will allow our non-profit partner groups the ability to maintain current user fees supporting Thorold youth development and participation in these programs at a standardized rate regardless of the location,” reads a City Hall report on the matter.
According to that same report, the subsidy will cost the city approximately $26,000 in 2022. The cost is already accounted for in the annual city budget.
According to the Canada Games Park consortium agreement, Thorold has 52 weekly hours available for community use of the ice surface.
At Tuesday’s meeting, councillor Jim Handley said he believes Thorold is hemorrhaging money with the new arena. He noted that the city has already spent $707,000 on the facility this year.
“It looks to me like we’re paying roughly $425 per hour for ice time before we even rent the ice or pay subsidies," he said. "We paid $707,000 already to the consortium and we’re only using the ice. We’re paying the utilities and one-third of the cost but we’re actually only using the ice.”
Mayor Terry Ugulini explained that the new arena is also being used by other user groups who are not being subsidized.
“The TCAG is using it, volleyball is there, there are other initiatives that are ongoing,” he said. “Right now, 52 hours a week isn’t cutting it for us because we’re already short on ice time for our user groups. We are short on primetime ice time.”
According to the City Hall report: "The key challenge is the loss of ice time Friday nights and Saturday afternoons resulting in a condensing of the schedule to fit all users within the available time beginning with our partner groups.”
Councillor John Kenny said he feels that user groups should make use of the ice outside of prime time hours as well.
“We aren’t utilizing the ice from 6:30 to 7:30 in the morning, with the exception of Tuesday and Wednesday,” he told council members. “To leave that ice open is not right. Some of the parents are going to say: ‘My kids don’t like getting up in the morning.’ Well, you know what? Get them out of bed because that’s part of the problem now as far as I’m concerned.”
In the end, city council voted to subsidize the rates for the three selected community user groups.
The City Hall report also indicated that the Frank Doherty Arena is set to re-open on Oct. 11.
