Updated arena use policy better meets residents’ ice needs, city says

City hall’s parks and recreation department is updating its arena usage policy to ensure the existing practices align with the policy’s intent and meet the community’s needs for services at indoor rinks.

The department presented the updates during the June 12 regular city council meeting, with council voting unanimously to accept the document.

The parks, recreation and facilities advisory committee reviews the policy annually to ensure the arena seasons and booking processes remain applicable based on current use and demand, a council report explained. It then sends any suggestions to the department, which forwards those recommendations to council for approval.

During this year’s review, the committee, department and Events Centre collaborated to update the policy to determine ice seasons, schedules, and annual rates. The department also engaged ice users to acquire feedback about the policy; no feedback was received. 

The department is responsible for programming, scheduling and maintaining the Kinsmen Arena, the Bert Hunt Arena and the Wally Boschuk Arena. The Kinsmen Arena is the only venue that offers ice and off-season sport court programming.

Changes to the policy last year led to the municipality extending the spring ice season at Bert Hunt and Wally Boschuk, resulting in an extra 228.5 hours booked for figure skating events, minor hockey 3 on 3 tournaments and the Epic Hockey Tournament, the report said. 

In March and April of this year, the city booked 619.25 hours of spring ice, compared to 390.75 hours in March 2022. 

Policy updates

The arena ice and sport court seasons will remain the same for 2023-24 as they were for 2022-23, the report said. 

This means the Events Centre ice starts Tuesday, Aug. 8 and ends when the Warriors’ season concludes in 2024; the Kinsmen Arena ice starts Monday, Sept. 11 and concludes March 17, 2024; the Bert Hunt Arena ice begins Sunday, Oct. 1 and finishes April 7, 2024; the Wally Boschuk Arena ice starts Sunday, Oct. 15 and concludes April 7, 2024; and the Kinsmen sport court starts April 1, 2024 and concludes Aug. 18, 2024.

Other policy changes include:

• Definitions were added to clarify schedule dates for September and October ice times, regular season ice, and spring ice due to different opening and closing dates at the three ice surfaces
• Confirmation of arena opening and closing dates for 2023-24. Spring ice will continue at the Pla-Mor Palace due to the success of two tournaments held in April and expected growth of 3 on 3 hockey. Knowledge of the spring ice schedules will also allow hockey or figure skating camps to plan ahead
• July 31 is the deadline for users to return their September ice times so the department can efficiently reschedule allocations; the previous date was Sept. 1, which made rescheduling difficult for fall ice
• 15-minute breaks have been added between sport court users to allow for venue changes due to various nets and boards that lacrosse and in-line skating use
• Clearer language to support the current practice of not charging for meeting rooms during special events 
• Further wording to support requests from provincial governing bodies for prime-time ice use for new leagues or programs 
• New language with ice flooding during special events and allowing arena staff to use their judgment about ice conditions and scheduling implications. The department has also scheduled 15 minutes between user groups to allow for possible flooding and transitions
• Clearer wording about the allotment of dressing rooms so there is more responsibility on user groups to provide rooms for officials and men and women since city staff may be unaware of specific needs during each rental

The next regular council meeting is Monday, June 26.