The City of Prince George will take a look at what it will costs to refrigerate the Outdoor Ice Oval.
Ice Oval Society President Kathy Lewis presented to City Council at tonight’s (Monday) meeting.
“Weather has been a challenge, especially in recent years,” Lewis said, noting that last year they were only open for 27 days.
She also said the number of skaters they would receive per day had been increasing prior to 2021, but have since declined.
“The problems that we have could be solved with moving towards refrigeration, and that’s what this presentation is hoping to convince you of,” Lewis said.
Lewis added they’ve been successful in acquiring grants for projects in the tens of thousands of dollars range, but there are few programs available to small societies to support major infrastructure projects.
“Our request, recognizing there are many demands on City resources, at the same time, we have, the Outdoor Ice Oval Society has a solid and dedicated and sustainable volunteer base, and we have a solid financial foundation,” Lewis said.
“The Oval is growing in popularity, and has the potential to be so much more to our community and to attract events that could provide an economic benefit.”
The Ice Oval Society’s ask to Council was to direct staff to facilitate the development of a comprehensive estimate of capital and operating costs of refrigeration, including options that could promote summer use, and to have refrigeration added to the unfunded capital projects list.
“This estimate of the project cost could position us quite well for future funding programs similar to the strategic priorities fund,” Lewis said.
“It would also provide solid data for future budget discussions and for fundraising.”
Lewis added a refrigerated outdoor ice oval in Halifax provides skating at up to ten degrees Celsius.
“Refrigeration would extend our season considerably, and would avoid the in-season thaw periods that require us to rebuild the ice,” she explained.
Lewis also said the society would contribute some of the funds they’ve already raised for refrigeration already to help with preparing the estimate.
Councillor Kyle Sampson moved to go ahead with the Society’s request.
“I think it’s time that we lean into being a winter city, and we help generate that proper plan so we know what the future looks like,” Sampson.
“I think it’s a reasonable request and we don’t know what the path is ahead unless we make the plan, I think these folks are working hard and we can meet them part way.”
Mayor Simon Yu said there’s more that could be done.
“There’s still a huge piece of field in the middle, I can think of multiple things, we can turn this facility, not only as an Ice Oval, but perhaps during the heat of the summer, we can use this whole facility for something else as well,” Yu said.
“While the staff will develop the refrigeration, the key piece, the cost estimate, but I would like to see that staff don’t limit our imagination just to the ice oval.”
Council supported the request, with an amendment put forward by Councillor Cori Ramsay to include lifecycle costs.
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