City Changes Ice And Court Surface Policy To Offer Better Ice Time

By Robert Thomas

The calls for summer ice - where arenas maintain ice surfaces during the summer months for all year round ice skating - were partially answered by Council this past Tuesday evening.

At their regular meeting, held on Tuesday evening instead of Monday evening due to the Victoria Day long weekend, Council voted unanimously to endorse changes made by the Parks, Recreation and Facilities Advisory Committee to the Arena Usage Policy.

The issue of no summer ice came up as a result of a enquiry by Councillor Doug Blanc in August 2021 when he asked why none was available in Moose Jaw while other nearby communities offered year round ice skating opportunities.

At that time City Manager Jim Puffalt said summer ice was not offered because there was insufficient demand to pay for summer ice, which because of summer temperatures, is more expensive to maintain. Many users questioned why the City did not offer summer ice given they were driving elsewhere to take advantage of it.

There was no discussion at Council on the motions to approve the changes but Mayor Clive Tolley later released a statement on the changes.

“This is another excellent example of user groups expressing a desire and our Administration engaging with them to find a solution,” Mayor Clive Tolley said in the statement, adding “we have tremendous arena facilities in Moose Jaw and we’re more than happy to keep them in operation to meet the needs of the community.”

Derek Blais said the recommendations came out of meetings with user groups.

“We had productive discussions with user groups this spring, and we made the recommendations based on their needs and commitment to utilize the arenas during the extended time frames,” Derek Blais, Director of Parks and Recreation said in the release.

“There is no additional funding required to implement the changes to the arena seasons. The additional utility, staffing, and maintenance/supply costs will be offset through additional revenue generated from ice rentals,” Blais said in a statement.

The report to Council stated there would be no additional costs to the City for the changes as well as Mosaic Place will generate an additional $31,700 in revenue from the already booked 150.25 hours booked in August by user groups.

The changes made to the Arena Usage Policy will see moves when ice is available in all city owned arenas - including the independently managed Mosaic Place. (See chart below)

For Mosaic Place arena ice will now be available as before - at the end of the Moose Jaw Warrior’s season - but there is a new clause that if the Tribe does not make it in the playoffs into April that the ice will remain until April 9th.

The ice at Mosaic Place will also be started on August 15th when previously the ice was not available until the last week of August.

The policy for 2022/2023 will see a shift of more ice availability at the two South Hill arenas - the Bert Hunt Arena and the Wally Boschuk Arena.

Both the Bert Hunt and Wally Boschuk Arenas will see their ice availability seasons extended to to close on April 9th instead of the previous March 15th closures. The starting dates of ice availability at the start of the season remains the same.

North Hill’s Kinsmen Arena - where a floor is available after the skating season for use by other sports - will see an additional three days of ice availability at the start of the season in September while the end of the ice availability season will be sooner. The ice will be out at the Kinsmen Arena on March 15th instead of the previous March 31st.

The Sport Court at the Kinsmen Arena will see changes with the floor available the first Monday in April instead of April 15th and the indoor court closing the third Sunday in August instead of on August 28th.