CENTRAL MANITOULIN—The council chambers were packed with concerned parents, coaches and community members as the Central Manitoulin Property Committee held its Tuesday, March 11 meeting. On the agenda was the receiving of engineering reports on the Mindemoya arena.
The arena had been slated to remain open for an additional nine days this season to accommodate the Manitoulin Minor Hockey Association (MMHA) tournament, but the discovery that a combination of snow load and a subsequent rainfall had caused a four-inch bow to the west wall of the facility led to the arena being summarily shut down and closed for public events.
That closure occurred despite the report indicating that only the players’ benches could not be utilized. MMHA decided that not being able to use the benches made the arena unsuitable. The community’s other arena in Providence Bay was not considered suitable for the older teams as the ice surface is smaller, posing a safety hazard in itself for the older players.
Community member Marie Ford made a presentation to the Property Committee members (see Page 5 for her presentation as an op-ed in this week’s edition of The Expositor).
Ms. Ford said that she felt uncomfortable about calling the council on the carpet for allowing the arena to deteriorate to the point of closure and noted that many community groups utilize the arena facilities during the non-hockey months—making the closure a significant issue for parents and their families, as well as those many groups and festivals.
Ms. Ford pointed out that, back in 2019 when the issue first became apparent as serious, the municipality had failed to contact a local contractor who had offered to remove the snow.
“I do want to thank Marie for the presentation,” said Councillor Derek Stephens who was sitting as temporary chair. “It is an issue that is certainly an important one for the community and it’s important for council to attend staff.”
Mayor Richard Stephens pointed out that the council had looked at replacing the arena with a multi-purpose centre, but that the estimated $15 million was more “than we could afford and I’m certainly sure that none of us want to take on a mortgage like that, and for any purpose in this state in time.”
Ms. Ford responded that “But we need to fix it, we need to think that if we don’t keep making those fixes, they build up to basically being told ‘sorry, the arena is not fit to be used anymore’. My question is, ‘why aren’t we making these fixes as we go along.’”
Mayor Stephens said that getting the answers to Ms. Ford’s questions would take some time and suggested that a public meeting would help to clear the air. He said it was important that everyone pull together to solve the issue.
Ms. Ford noted that the process normally followed by council would pose challenges in getting the arena repaired in time for the summer events, or even by the fall.
Asked by Councillor Dale Scott how important the arena is to the community, Ms. Ford pointed to the number and variety of people attending the meeting.
Councillor Linda Farquhar asked Ms. Ford how she might respond to a ratepayer who might be struggling with their bills when faced with the cost of dealing with the arena. Ms. Ford responded that she did not believe doing the repairs would be make or break. “I am a taxpayer as well,” she noted.
Councillor Stephens said that he believed that the snow load on the roof was not in excess of what had been advised as safe by the engineering report.
Councillor Dale Scott caused some consternation with councillors when he said that he had taken his snow rake and pulled some of the snow down. Councillor John Mitchell expressed serious concerns over the safety and liability involved when untrained individuals take such actions.
“If that had come down, it could have killed you,” he said.
During the meeting, it became apparent that there had also been an ammonia leak at the arena and that water has been infiltrating the facility through the doors (described as a design flaw that had been pointed out during previous work on the arena) and also through the wall itself.
Staff noted that was not an uncommon issue, having to place sandbags to stop infiltration in the past.
Concerns were raised about the safety of the facility now that the wall has shifted.
The issue came up again at the Thursday council meeting, where it was pointed out that council had unanimously voted to remove a $500,000 line item to repair the arena.
Following the Property Committee meeting, Ms. Ford said that she did not have confidence that her questions would be answered at that council meeting, which proved prescient as although discussion followed much the same form as at the property committee, answers would have to await later reports.
