It was standing room only inside Central Manitoulin council chambers as concerned community members gathered to hear elected leaders at a property committee meeting discuss the fate of their arena.
The meeting started with a space for public delegations.
Past president T.J. McDermid of Mindemoya Minor Hockey addressed the ongoing situation with the J.H. Burt Memorial Arena facility.
As it stands right now, the west wall has moved with officials crediting the heavy weight of this year’s snowfall as exacerbating some underlying issues.
“Removal of that snow should be a top priority for public safety, it should not be left,” McDermid said.
“We’re asking for our facility to be safe, regularly maintained and ready for use.”
The current bench for the players, which sits along the west wall, remains cordoned off.
McDermid’s speech was applauded by those in the gallery, both young and old, many of whom were hockey players who had shown up to the meeting in their jerseys.
After McDermid’s remarks, Dan Moody of Tulloch Engineering was called to give his assessment of the facility.
“Right now, we still don’t know why (the wall) has moved,” Moody said.
Two options
He told councillors that two options had been discussed with Central Manitoulin staff.
Moody said the best option would be to replace the wall, putting it back to its pre-damaged condition, but he warned of the cost associated with it.
The other option involves installing temporary shoring along the west wall, but would only last two to three years at most.
The final group to address council was 3rd Line Studios, a group of architects that provided designs to refurbish the Sudbury arena.
They’ve been conducting assessments of the island’s seven arenas and have been hired to conduct public consultation on the possibility of a new build.
The architects are hoping to have that report ready for council by February 2026.
Motion to repair arena immediately
After a lot of debate and questions from the council, Coun. Rose Diebolt moved that the arena be repaired immediately, which was met with applause again from those in the gallery.
“What we do is just wait until something breaks and then we fix it,” said Coun. Derek Stephens.
“And I get these crowds coming every time about spending taxpayers’ money. We need to come up with a plan. We can’t just keep fixing a used car.”
With the budget already set for the year, Coun. Brian Mitchell asked where the money would come from.
Diebolt’s motion didn’t pass, which led to an exchange between members of council and the gallery and many left the room seemingly angry with the situation.
It was a later question from Stephens that sparked a second motion to fix the arena, but to take Tulloch up on the second option of shoring up the wall.
“Personally, I want to see that arena open and available. If we’re going to spend $30- to $40,000 to get another year out of it and not a quarter of a million dollars, that would get me to reconsider,” Stephens said.
It turns out others agreed, including the mayor, who subsequently changed his vote.
The motion to temporarily fix the wall passed, but it’s unclear what the next step will be.
Staff reminded council if they proceed down this path, the roof of the arena will have to be cleared of snow more often and that it can’t take the same weight restrictions as before.
“We don’t have the equipment that would allow staff to do the removal safely, we’ve gotten a quote (on snow removal) that says it would be 10 grand a pop,” said the staff member.
“I’ve dealt with this arena so many times that we just don’t know what to do anymore,” said Stephens.
