Action required! HRM Proposed Ice Allocation Policy - potential to make hockey a second class citizen in HRM arenas if adopted

2010-06-19

Fellow Whalers,
 
Access to ice at the new 4 pad arena in Bedford is currently in the news, and many questions are being asked about how ice was allotted to minor hockey in this facility, and about the fairness and equity in the process of ice allocation by the private operator which HRM has contracted to run the facility.
 
Halifax Hawks and Chebucto MHA's each received 3 hours of ice per week while the Bedford Blues MHA received 118 hours of ice per week in this new facility. No other minor hockey association in HRM has any ice time in this facility.  Last week in a meeting with representatives of Nustadia (the company HRM has hired to manage the new 4 ice arena for the next 20 years) we were told they already had "38 temporary contracts and the Dartmouth Whalers would be number 39 on the list for ice". As of today we have no hours of new ice anywhere in HRM for the upcoming season.
 
Representatives from the Dartmouth Whalers attended several meetings with HRM staff concerning the new facility and believed we were engaged in a process with HRM with respect to accessing ice in the facility.  We were told by HRM staff "everybody would have a fair opportunity to secure some ice at the new facility".  This has not happenned, and infact the process appears to have been less than fair to many stakeholders in the minor hockey community.
 
A larger (and far more concerning) problem is to be dicusssed by our City Council on June 22nd
 
On Tuesday June 15th HRM Staff presented to City Council their proposed Community Access Plan (which is an ice allocation policy).
 
If the Community Access Plan is approved and implimented minor hockey and ringette will become permanent second class citizens in the allocation of ice time in HRM.
 
The proposed ice allocation policy has aspects that will be positive changes in how HRM allocates ice time and these changes deserve our support. The policy insures sectors of the sports community that have been challenged to access ice times (such as Sledge Hockey and adult female hockey) receive a fair access to ice times.  The Whalers were the first minor hockey association in NS to provide regular ice time for Sledge hockey and we insure our female teams receive the same level of support as our co-ed competitive teams, so it is not a stretch to support these sections of the proposed policy.
 
There are however two serious flaws with the policy as it is written.
 
1) The policy will entitle hockey and ringette to only one-half the ice time figure skating is entitled to. 
 
Under the policy a group of 24 competitive figure skaters will be entitled to up to 13.75 hours per week of ice time while a hockey team of 17 players will be entitled to a maximim of 5 hours per week (page 34 Community Access Plan; Standards of Fair Play Formula).
 
13.75 hours / 24 participants = 0.6 hours of ice time per week per figure skating participant
5.00 hours / 17 participants = 0.3 hours of ice time per week per hockey/ringette participant 
 
By policy hockey and ringette will only be entitled to one half the ice time that figure skating is entitled to. The policy talks about fairness and equity throughout the document, and then allocates ice on the above basis.  Does this look like a fair and equitable method of allocating ice to tax paying user groups?
 
 
2) The policy will not provide associations such as the Whalers with enough ice time to maintain our existing programs
 
The policy identifies how much ice time should be allocated to various age groups and competitive levels of hockey and ringette. It is through these specifc ice time allocations to different ages groups and competitive levels of hockey and ringette that HRM will determine how much ice time a minor hockey association or ringette association will be allocated. 
 
Currently the Whalers have 135 hours of ice per week; if the ice allocation policy being proposed was in place today our ice time allocation would be reduced to 115 hours per week, a loss of 20 hours per week.
 
What is the impact of losing 20 hours of ice time per week?  Any of the following changes would reduce our ice requirements by 20 hours per week:
 
- all rep and female teams will no longer have a one hour practice to themselves
- 30 teams (rep and/or recreational) will no longer have their shared 1.5 hour practice
- 20 fewer recreational games per week are played