MOOSE JAW — Groups that use indoor rinks in Moose Jaw must now submit their ice-time requests to city hall two weeks earlier than normal based on changes to the municipality’s arena usage policy.
The parks and recreation department presented an updated policy during city council’s recent regular meeting, with council unanimously approving the document.
One big amendment is that the deadline for user groups to submit their applications for ice use or special events is now April 1 instead of April 15, while the department will now allocate ice by June 1 instead of June 15 to accommodate the schedules of the two school divisions.
Specifically, the order in which the city will distribute user-group ice allocations for the upcoming season will be September use, October use, regular season activities, spring ice activities and preliminary special events.
The arena seasons for the 2024-25 year include:
- Events Centre ice: Aug. 6 to the end of the Warriors’ season
- Kinsmen ice: Sept. 9 to March 16, 2025
- Bert Hunt ice: Sept. 27 to April 6, 2025
- Wally Boschuk ice: Oct. 15 to April 6, 2025
- Kinsmen Arena sport court: April 1 to Aug. 17, 2025
Also, the adult prime rate will be applied to all September arena ice bookings, while regular rates and fees will apply from Oct. 1 to April 6, 2025.
Meanwhile, the city will not schedule any ice time before noon on Remembrance Day. This limitation joins five other periods throughout the year where the city will not schedule ice time.
The parks and rec department has added a section called “ice allotment guidelines,” where the department will attempt to meet the requests of user groups but cannot promise that it will grant all requests. Instead, ice allocation will be based on the previous year’s bookings and flood schedules, while to assist with ice allocation, the department will use several criteria for the 2024-25 arena schedule.
To address organizations that book arenas and have unpaid accounts, the City of Moose Jaw may now suspend or cancel any bookings to any organizations with outstanding payments of any number of rentals.
With returning seasonal ice rentals, groups that receive ice time on June 1 for the full season may return some of the seasonal allocation after the Sept. 1 deadline. These returns must occur 30 days in advance for the remainder of the season and must be returned as bookable times.
“Groups returning seasonal ice will not be guaranteed this allocation in the next year as per section 6,” the policy says.
With playing surfaces, the city is now encouraging groups to inspect the playing area before they use it to identify any immediate safety concerns. Groups should bring those concerns to the immediate attention of operations staff and other participants.
The department has also added four clauses to address food and beverages, smoking and vaping, advertising and marketing, and admission fees.
Meanwhile, to rent indoor arenas from April 1 to March 31, 2025, the hourly cost will range from $71 to $219, depending upon the organization and whether it’s prime-time or non-prime-time.
In the spring and summer, to use the Kinsmen Arena sport court floor, the hourly cost ranges from $55 to $219.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, June 10.
