Efforts to convince the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) to keep the ice down at one of its two rinks until the end of May each year are continuing.
User groups formed a Spring Ice Committee in 2016 in the hopes of nailing down an agreement with the SCRD to extend the ice season at the Sechelt Arena to May 31 for at least three years starting in 2017. The committee argued that a longer season is vital for minor hockey players and competitive figure skaters, and it’s now practical because there are two arenas.
But SCRD directors voted last July to “maintain status quo for the 2017 dry floor program and ice scheduling” and have staff continue working with the ice users.
Kate Turner, who volunteers as the registrar for both the Sunshine Coast Skating Club and the Sunshine Coast Minor Hockey Association, said the Skating Club was disappointed when the SCRD turned down their request for just three extra days of ice this month so figure skaters could train for a recent competition in Parksville.
The skaters had to travel to Powell River instead, where the Powell River RD maintains ice in one of its rinks from Aug. 1 until May 31. Turner said the extra training days were vital to helping the skaters achieve high level results in Parksville (See Coast Reporter’s April 21 story).
Turner said Powell River’s August through May ice season is common practice for a lot of communities, and she’s hopeful the Sunshine Coast won’t be the exception much longer.
“We have a very strong ice user commitment from both figure skating and from hockey,” she said. “We’ve spent a lot of time travelling around the south of B.C. now and seeing how different rinks are utilized and we’ve taken that to the SCRD and given them lots of ideas. They’re going to really work with us to hopefully make it happen.”
Turner estimates that as well as the figure skaters, as many as 75 hockey players commute off-Coast to play with spring league teams on the Lower Mainland – a significant commitment in time and money for parents and the local associations.
SCRD general manager of planning and community development Ian Hall told Coast Reporter the regional district “plans to review the opportunities and the business case for expanding the ice available at arenas as part of our regular program and facility reviews.”
– With files from Coast Reporter archives
