Grey Highlands council wants to see its four local arenas open more days and hours.
At its meeting on Oct. 18, Grey Highlands council approved a resolution directing municipal staff to add part-time and casual staff to local arenas to expand hours of operations, provided there is demand for additional arena hours.
Council passed the resolution unanimously after a lengthy and spirited discussion on the matter. Coun. Dan Wickens brought the issue directly to the council table for discussion. Although arena operations were not on the agenda for the meeting, council approved an addition to the day’s proceedings to address the matter.
Wickens said he had recently attended multiple arena committee meetings and had heard multiple groups in different local areas (Feversham, Rocklyn and Markdale) were seeking expanded ice time hours.
“Somehow we need to find out what the roadblocks are and we need to fix them. The community wants access,” said Wickens, who said the move would be “revenue positive” with more rental income flowing into the municipality’s coffers. “There’s got to be a solution. I want to get this fixed.”
Grey Highlands operates four arenas in Flesherton, Feversham, Rocklyn and Markdale. Currently, just Feversham is open seven days a week. Rocklyn and Markdale are open five days a week, while Flesherton is open six days a week.
The issue set off a council debate that lasted more than 70 minutes.
Wickens found support for his position from Coun. Nadia Dubyk.
“Can we find some flexibility to help meet the needs and demands of the community during this season?” said Dubyk. “We make money when we’re open.”
Deputy Mayor Dane Nielsen reminded his colleagues that during the 2023 budget deliberations council had turned down a staff recommendation to add more arena staff to have the facilities open longer and more days. Nielsen said the municipality has eight staff members running four arenas.
“Scheduling is pretty tricky,” he said, but added there is ice time open for community use seven days a week. “Every day of the week there is ice time available somewhere in Grey Highlands.”
Throughout the course of the discussion CAO Karen Govan and Michele Harris, director of economic and community development outlined the operational realities on the ground at the four arenas. Harris said the current staff complement has “maximized the efficiencies of the schedule we have.” She said an additional full-time equivalent staff member (40 hours per week) would cost approximately $35,000-40,000 per year.
Govan said the municipality has been “very innovative” in its approach to scheduling local arenas. Municipal staff reached out to local arena user groups ahead of the season to find out ice time needs and desires in order to maximize the available resources at each facility.
The CAO promised that staff would “move heaven and Earth” to implement any council approval of additional staff at the arenas.
“We need the resources to do it,” she said.
Coun. Tom Allwood lamented that his recent resolution to take a look at possibly training local community volunteers to work at arenas had been lost at the council table. He said strong consideration should be given to reaching out to local residents directly and hiring them and training them as part-time staff.
“There is a motivated group of ratepayers out there that could be paid staff,” he said. “I think that deserves a look at. The demand, from what I’ve seen, is there.”
Ultimately, council approved a resolution from Dubyk that directed staff to add part-time and casual staff for arena operations, provided there was revenue and demand to justify the increase. Staff said they would return to the council table with a report and more details in the near future.
