NorWest Arena - Photo supplied
Both sides of the discussion in increasing capacity at city arenas seem to be at odds over surveys.
During Monday’s council meeting, City Manager Norm Gale stated that they were sent out, but none had been returned.
However, in messages shared with Acadia News Thunder Bay Hockey Community Page Administrator and Vice-President of a local hockey group Lex MacArthur, no one had received their surveys until Tuesday just before 1:00 p.m., and they are due back Friday.
“I sent out an email to all the hockey association presidents and I’ve heard back from most of them,” explains MacArthur. “None of the ones that have responded so far, and I’m only waiting on a couple more, none had received a survey. It’s hard to respond to something when you haven’t received it.”
MacArthur goes on to say when the hockey groups did finally receive the survey, it was not what they expected.
“There was one question, my organization requires spectator capacity in excess of 45 people for all ice times, some ice times, or no ice times,” says MacArthur. “I asked Mayor Mauro to give me a phone call, and he called me right at noon. I let him know that nobody knows anything about the survey, so he said that he’d get in touch with the City Manager (Norm Gale) immediately, and all the organizations started messaging me, and we received it at 12:43 p.m. today.”
MacArthur went onto say, “Kelly Robertson does not take kindly to being overruled by council as noted last year when they removed the nets from the outdoor rinks and she talked about how long that process of returning them was going to take, and last year when she had decided that she was not going to open the Fort William Gardens, and council decided it should be moved forward. Kelly Robertson is doing her damndest to make life difficult for us. We are hopeful that the city will work with the hockey groups to allow for greater capacities but as evidenced last winter with the Gardens reopening and the returning of the nets to the outdoor rinks roadblocks were put up by Robertson.”
A statement from the city to Acadia News included the following:
“The survey was originally sent on September 23rd, and then resent again mid-day Tuesday. A link and instructions were sent to 156 people, all part of an established Ice User Group. The deadline to submit the survey is Friday, October 1st at Noon. Administration will use the results of this survey when they report back to City Council on Monday, October 4th.”
MacArthur concluded by saying that ultimately hockey groups and the city can move forward and work towards what is best for the community.
Under the new policy, arena capacities will be increased to:
- Port Arthur Arena – 308
- Current River Arena – 155
- Delaney Arena – 110
- Neebing Arena – 94
- Grandview – 102
