Last Thursday we met with Mayor Fawcett, and counsellors Berry, Karrouze, and Cameronas as well as the City chief planner, Ryan Nickel. Hockey Brandon and a speed skating club representative were also there. The purpose of the meeting was for the city to relay their process and reasons. 

They stated that there is $ 1.5 million in the city's 2024 budget to replace the ice plant. What they did not expect was for it to break down ahead of schedule. it is a 44-year-old plant that has a life expectancy of 30 years. a repair to the plant would have cost $350,000 where as replacement is $1.5 million. during a council meeting, it was brought up by a counsellor that they should do a study to see if ice is the best use for the facility. MNP was contracted for a use study at a cost of $120,000. the draft report will be done by the end of September. then the city will go through their decision process on how to move forward. If they do decide to replace the ice plant, it was stated it will take about a year to get the plant after that.  

the city claimed that rentals were down due to Hockey Brandon moving a chunk of ice rental elsewhere and a commitment to rent a certain amount of ice would help.  Hockey Brandon commented that the difficulty to rent ice was a big factor in moving ice. The city did acknowledge that they are working on a better system for renting the facility as they know it is broken. 

Beyond Hockey Brandon, the facility is the only one where there was public skating, stick and pucks and open training. As of July 7 when the Keystone takes out their ice, there is nowhere for private groups to rent ice for training. Men, women and youth rec hockey is played out of the facility as well as other user groups.   

what is clear is that we need to keep having our voices heard. this petition is one of the ways we can do that. Please keep sharing it on all your social media platforms regularly.