Council for the Town of Saugeen Shores has approved a new ice allocation policy, that officials hope will ease some arena pressures until a new rink can be built next decade.
The policy, which was approved as presented to council on Monday, identifies how user groups and ice customers will be prioritized when considering allocation requests for ice for each season.
Ice availability has been a hot topic in Saugeen Shores in recently, with multiple groups asking the Town to move up construction of another ice pad. The Town's 10-year Capital Plan has 2036 as the target for installation of a second pad at the Port Elgin Plex.
Mayor Luke Charbonneau said council appreciated the work that went into developing the policy, which will provide a transparent approach to scheduling.
"It's a really great policy and I appreciate that you can see the hierarchy and the scheduling sequence, putting that all on paper so it's clear to folks how it's going to be done," he said. "Then, the clear prioritizing it does for youth is really important. It gives a clear sense of how we're going to make decisions around this, who we're going to prioritize and how we're going to do that."
The new policy will give top scheduling priority to Town-operated programs and registered youth programs, followed by long-term youth affiliated organizations, and long-term adult affiliated organizations. New and emerging users and occasional customers will have the lowest priority.
Lisa Billing, Manager of Recreation, told council that tournaments, competitions and high test days during the regular season will be allocated separately from seasonal contract allocation.
"We do put the tournaments, competitions, one-off development activities in first," she told council. "As an example for our Minor Hockey Association, that would be the Silver Stick Tournament, which is always put into the schedule, typically ahead of us scheduling the regular Saturday, Sunday ice times. So the core programming follows behind that."
Billing told council that 13 of the facilities 16 regular user groups provided feedback to help shape the policy. According to the surveys four of those groups: Saugeen Shores Minor Hockey Association, Bruce Grey Bulls, Bruce Wings and the Mid Ice Crisis said the current capacity won't meet their future needs, due to growing interest in their programs or players leaving for other communities with better ice availability.
The upcoming schedule for 2026-27 will be shaped using the new policy, and available to groups ahead of the annual ice user group meeting in early August for review and discussion.
Residents can view the new policy here.
