Watch the back door
Any good hockey player knows, when you’re on the ice, you keep your head on a swivel.
Well, Oshawa hockey and ice users should keep that lesson in mind with the most recent decision to thaw the ice at Children’s Arena next season.
It would seem Oshawa council hasn’t learned their lesson when it comes to ice rinks.
If you try and take it away, the people will protest.
The story doesn’t just start here either.
Over the past decade, the city has been flooded with reports from consultants claiming the city has a surplus of ice pads, and claiming consolidating that surplus is a good way to save money.
First, it was Harman Park. At that time, the closure of Harman could save the city millions in capital repairs. It wasn’t the first time Harman, built in 1969, found itself on the chopping block either. Reports in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2011 all called for some form of “facility rationalization” or, quite simply, the direct call for the south Oshawa arena to be closed.
The only reason Harman Park is still standing to this day is due to the dedication of the hockey and other ice groups that rely on the rink to give their kids the much needed physical activity that is so lacking in the younger generations today.
During the Harman discussions, residents packed the council chambers protesting, carrying signs, yelling, so much so, that security and police were called to quiet the raucous crowd more at home in a hockey rink than a council chamber.
In the end, the rink stayed open.
Now, council is taking a backdoor to find the solution they couldn’t achieve with Harman, and here, ice users, is where you need to keep that head on a swivel.
A full closure was too brutal, it cut deep for hockey supporters and they reacted in a big way. Now though, council seems to think that by closing the rink “only for this season”, it will upset some residents, but it’s not a permanent thing, so don’t be worried.
Residents should still be worried.
The capital repairs, $3.8 million, are still going to be there next year, the hockey gods may shine on the sticks of some players, leading to that game winning goal, but they don’t repair broken roofs or malfunctioning ice-making machines.
Council will still have to deal with those repairs next budget, and what then? Will the arena go without ice for another season? Or, will another consultant be brought in and a report made that shows we really didn’t need Children’s Arena in Oshawa after all.
Several Oshawa councillors referred to the tax dollars saved by not spending on the aging arena, which is fair, however, the numbers that show a surplus in the city’s ice pads don’t add up.
Kudos to councillor John Shields who did his homework, noting a surplus no longer seems to exist.
After the removal of the unreliable ice time at the General Motors Centre, the ice pads there were devalued by 2.6 pads. This would dig into the city’s 2.7 ice pad surplus, leaving a surplus of 0.1, or statistically nothing.
When he put the question to Jag Sharma, the city’s commissioner of community services could have had skates and a helmet on for how well he deked the question.
The city has “agreements” with the General Motors Centre ice to ensure it can be used.
The one season closure seems to be foggier than an ice rink in the morning.
Residents, wipe the condensation off the glass, and be ready for a fight, because this won’t be the last time Children’s Arena will find itself on the chopping block.