By Thia James

Council set to approve 3-year trial of spring arena ice

Sep 16, 2014 | 6:40 AM

Prince Albert may soon move ahead with a three-year trial to make arena ice available well into the spring.

In July, members of council voted to delay a decision to extend the arena ice season at the Art Hauser Centre, the Kinsmen Arena and the Dave G. Steuart Arena into April. They then agreed to have administration to take another look at the plan on the table.

At Monday’s executive committee meeting, elected officials had their first opportunity to discuss the revised plan that the community services department returned with.

Administration now recommends extending the Art Hauser Centre’s ice season for two weeks in April and by one week in April at the other two rinks. It’s also recommending a $20 per hour rate increase for ice rentals during the extended period for tournaments.

Mayor Greg Dionne agrees with the rate structure set out in the revised plan.

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“I have no problem subsidizing ice during the regular season,” Dionne said during the meeting. “But when we’re extending ice, we should try to recover most of the cost we can.”

At the Art Hauser Centre, tournament organizers would pay $195 per hour during the ice season extension to rent the ice. At the Kinsmen Arena and Dave G. Steuart Arena, that per hour fee would be $175 per hour. The rate increase would not affect youth user groups – they would be subject to the same rates year round.

At the Dave G. Steuart Arena, the ice season would also start sooner – on Oct. 1 under the new plan.

Administration’s revised plan is the final result of another round of consultations with user groups. The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) has also let city officials know that it wants to take advantage of the ice season extension next year and host the 2015 Adult Hockey Championships in Prince Albert from April 3 to 5.

Community services director Jody Boulet told the executive committee that the FSIN approached his department about the tournament. The FSIN is charged $300 per hour in Saskatoon to host the event at the Jemini Arena.

He said when they looked at Prince Albert’s rate structure and its recent experience being the host city of the First Nation Winter Games, there were further discussions.

“They’re hoping to bring 70 teams with that tournament to the city. Certainly that’s going to be a situation that I don’t think again that weekend you’ll find a hotel room in Prince Albert. But also, what it’s been able for us to do is start discussions with them about a long-term commitment. If we are interested in extending our season, in a multi-year situation, then FSIN is interested in doing business with us.”

When it comes to the Dave G. Steuart’s early start to the fall ice season, Boulet explained that the Prince Albert Minor Hockey Association asked to have the start pushed up to Oct. 1 from after Thanksgiving.

“They’ve seen just over a 20 per cent increase in their registrations in the last three years. And it’s something that now they’re seeing a higher demand in order to have their program start at the start of the season before our four natural-ice indoor community club rinks are available.”

But for Coun. Tim Scharkowski, the need to approve the ice season extension at all three rinks may not be there for all three years. While he supported it for 2015 with the FSIN tournament coming to the city, he is unsure about other years.

“That’s fine for this year, but next year, I don’t like approving all three rinks. Because I don’t think coming that unless we have guarantees that we’re going to have a big event like that, all three rinks are going to be utilized, and we’re not going to have anybody in them.”

Council is expected to make a decision on the revised arena ice extension plan at next week’s council meeting.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames