Elliot Lake arena reopening delayed 'indefinitely,' with bill for ongoing repairs 'unknown'

It's official: hockey players and figure skaters won't be using the arena in Elliot Lake, Ont., this winter, after city council votes to delay the renovations indefinitely.

On Wednesday night, details about the reopening of the Rogers Arena, formerly known as the Centennial Arena, were presented to city council.

Bill Goulding, manager of special projects with the City of Elliot Lake, admitted the update was difficult to write.

"It took me some effort to write and then in some respects it was frustrating for me to write," he told councillors.

"Normally when I bring a report to council, it has more concrete and quantitative information in it. But where we find ourselves in the project right now, we're not in a position to offer hard numbers about what costs increases might be in the future, and we're not able to provide hard dates on when these issues might be resolved."

The arena was closed in 2023 due to structural concerns. After months of repairs, there were hopes it would reopen in January. 

But Goulding said they've "encountered several obstacles," including the condition of the soil underneath the arena, as well as essential upgrades to the electrical system, that wasn't apparent before construction. 

'We don't know'

The goal now is to reopen the arena in time for the 2025-2026 winter season, but Goulding said he decided to write in his report that the 56-year-old facility will be closed "indefinitely." 

"According to the literal translation of indefinite meaning, we don't know," he said.

"But that doesn't mean never. And that doesn't mean prolonged. It just means I can't sit here today and offer a solid date worth of your consideration."

The cost of the updated repairs was not included in the report, which was questioned by Elliot Lake Coun. Rick Bull.

"We don't know how much this is going to cost us," he said. 

"Like, we've already gone over our estimate by $4 [million] or $5 million already and I'm concerned that this is going to cost a lot more money than we know. So how do we get a general sense of what it's going to cost us to do all this?"

Goulding explained that number was difficult to pin down at this point.

"Staff has an idea of what the general costs are in this, but it's such a moving target to get any vendor or combination of vendors to commit to a price given the uncertainty right now wouldn't be good for the city," he said.

"We have to come to clarity on all of those issues before we can throw a number at this... But I can tell you we're not talking about double this project value."

Goulding said staff would provide councillors with a detailed breakdown once that information becomes available.

Council voted unanimously to accept the recommendations.