Fort William Gardens to re-open, against recommendation from city staff

City councillors in Thunder Bay, Ont. say they want to re-open the city's largest arena, in the case more ice time is needed for hockey, or other indoor ice sports.

Administration told council on Monday, as part of its regular COVID-19 service updates to council, the Fort William Gardens should remain closed until 2021. A lack of demand for ice time, along with staffing shortages, and a high cost were some of the reasons for the recommendation.

Council, however, had different ideas, suggesting there would be upcoming demand for ice time.

"The numbers that I provided to council on Monday night, were as of Monday. The requests that we had received, and working with the groups, and allocating the ice to meet their needs—and I was told there was no pent up demand," said Kelly Robertson, the general manager of community services told CBC News.

Robertson said city staff were going to speak with hockey leagues and other ice user groups at the end of November, to see if their need for ice was changing. She said if there was a change, then staff would re-evaluate if the Fort William Gardens was needed.

There are a number of challenges in operating the indoor arenas, Robertson said.

"Staffing these facilities is a bit of a challenge in the COVID context," which requires more staff than normal for screening and cleaning.

Robertson said the city is already dealing with staff shortages due to retirements, and arena operators need specialized training and licensing to do specific jobs.

"By consolidating the allocation of ice to meet the demand at the satellite arenas, we're able to save some money, and mitigate some of the costs of re-opening the other sites in the COVID context."

The city has about 2700 hours of ice time booked for the fall, Robertson said, which is about 100 hours less than last year at the same time. All of that demand was absorbed by the city's arenas, along with additional time available at the Tournament Centre, Robertson said.

Even with one less rink at the Tournament Centre, the amount of ice time available for rent, has actually increased, she said. It's because of a formula used to allocate ice to the city for rental slots at the facility, which is not city-owned.

Robertson said the move to open the Fort William Gardens will cost the city about $25,000 in staffing and utility costs, which will contribute to a $100,000 operating deficit for the facility in 2020.

The facility's operations are usually subsidized by about $500,000 annually, according to past city budgets.

Robertson said the continued closure of the Gardens would mean the city would only subsidize the facility to the tune of $75,000 for the year.

With the direction from city council to open the facility for the winter season, Robertson estimated the ice will be ready by early December.

Outdoor rinks

The city's parks division will maintain the same number of outdoor rinks as in 2020, as there is an assumption there will be a higher demand for outdoor recreation this winter.

Cory Halvorsen, the city's manager of parks and open spaces, said there is a plan though to reduce the number of skating ponds by two, at Vale Community Centre and in Confederation Park, off of Arthur St, next year.

The two ponds are underutilized, and there are other rinks nearby. In the case of the Vale pond, there are boarded hockey rinks and a skating pond about a block away.

Halvorsen said staff who would have maintained the ponds will now take care of the skating trail in Vickers Park, which is scheduled to come online.

Halvorsen said there are other rinks that do not meet the threshold for enough users per hour, but the city is not planning to change its number of outdoor rinks at this time.

He said a consultant's report thought the city could reduce its complement of outdoor rinks by about 20 per cent, but those rinks were not readily identified.

The city said it is still reviewing its operations of the skating rink at Prince Arthur's Landing.