Brandon debates future of only city-owned ice surface after rink shut down in March

Questions around the future of Brandon's Sportsplex facility have some community members calling on the southwestern Manitoba city's council to "keep the ice."

Michelle Augustyn, who is the parent of three hockey players and speed skaters and is the director for an under-nine hockey group in the city, was among residents who attended a Wednesday open house to learn about potential changes to the facility.

Those changes could include losing its ice rink, which was temporarily closed earlier this year.

"This has been a huge impact on us," Augustyn said. 

"This is an ice surface that we've used for many years for learn-to-skate programs and just for community, getting the kids together, getting them off the streets, playing hockey ... building community connections."

The Sportsplex — which includes the only city-owned ice surface in Brandon, along with an indoor pool, racquetball courts and multipurpose rooms — was built in 1978 and "has reached the end of its service life," according to the city.

The hockey arena was shuttered in March after the city determined its ice plant needed $350,000 in repairs. In a social media post, the city said the repaired ice plant would reopen in 2024 but would only last about a year, because it will no longer meet new provincial regulations as of 2025.

As the facility ages, "we're seeing lots of issues with accessibility, functionality and of course aging infrastructure in general, like our ice plant," said Heather Reimer, the city's manager of recreation.

Wednesday's open house was part of the public consultation the city began in connection with a needs assessment it launched last year to determine the best future use of the Sportsplex.

Four options for the future of the ice surface are being shared with the public — maintaining it as an ice rink, converting it to turf, making it a hard court or creating a turf-hard court combination. 

As of Wednesday, an online survey about the potential changes had more than 1,500 responses.

The city's needs assessment looks at the Sportsplex as a whole, Reimer said, but the arena in particular is a hot topic because it's the part of the Sportsplex that could see the most dramatic changes.

Because recreation is "so important to people … we need the community's feedback on where we go with this facility," she said.

'Difficult decisions will get made': mayor

The city's assessment is intended to find out how the community wants to use the arena space, while addressing accessibility and functionality issues, Reimer said.

Mayor Jeff Fawcett says Brandonites have emotional attachments to the Sportsplex — especially the ice rink — which is leading to some debate about the facility's future.

"It will be impossible to please everybody with the one facility, but that's why we're going through this process.... Difficult decisions will get made, but we don't want to pit people against one another," Fawcett said.

"We're going to figure out what we can do [and] what's best for the community."

There aren't any cost projections for the potential changes yet. The city will look at that in Phase 2 of the project, which will take place later this fall. 

The city is also hoping for provincial and federal funding for the facility, Fawcett said, and council will likely wait until budget deliberations to make a final decision.

'Keep the ice,' says grandmother

Jo-Anne Soder attended Wednesday's open house in the Sportsplex arena carrying a "keep the ice" sign.

She said it's been hard to see the rink closed, especially over the summer when her seven-year-old grandson would normally be hitting the ice to skate.

"Now we're looking at probably not having the ice for a whole year," Soder said.

Soder thinks there's a lot of support for keeping an ice rink.

Augustyn said she liked all the concepts shared by the city, but that Brandon ultimately needs more ice and community programming.

"It's not just hockey. It's ice skating, speed skating, figure skating, learn-to-skate programs for new Canadians for Indigenous people," Augustyn said. "There's equipment that's available for people here that don't maybe have the budget to afford it." 

The closure of the rink has been a disappointment, she said.

"It's sad. When I stepped on the concrete, it made me sad that there is no ice."

The Sportsplex survey is available online until Aug. 23.