mike cluett

• Run by the town & non refrigerated
• Community Volunteer Program – run by local neighbourhood groups within town parks
• Run by the town – Synthetic
• Run by the town – Refrigerated

What we are currently providing with the two rinks costs us (taxpayers) roughly $16,000 for 2021/22 and $33,000 in 2022/23 in staffing, supplies and ongoing maintenance of the rinks. These costs will increase with the introduction of more rinks in town parks.

The next option of a community volunteer program is REALLY interesting and it would allow individual neighbourhoods in approved park settings to assist in the construction and maintenance of local rinks around the community. This is one of the options our staff are developing for council review and will be brought to us later this year for discussion. Costs will be dependent obviously on how many rinks will be approved, the uptake from the community to volunteer assistance as well as risk management (ie insurance) and screening processes.

The synthetic ice option is not something we would recommend at this point and would require a substantial capital and operating investment which in essence prices us out the market, but still can remain a long term goal for operations. There are synthetic rinks in Burlington and Brampton for those interested in seeing what its like.

Finally the town run refrigerated rinks which seems to be many peoples favourites as it guarantees a longer time of operation and less dependent on weather patterns. Notice its not entirely free of weather dependency but still can be used by the public longer than non refrigerated rinks.

The initial capital costs of this rinks are roughly $2-3 million each and approximately $300-400,000 in operational costs as you have to ensure each location has a changing facility and washroom structure and staff room available in where these are located.

As I mentioned, we will be getting an update as a part of our community services master plan process as we continue to grow. One of those areas is part of our Downtown Civic Square Study which should be updated later this year.

I hope this post helps in providing you some information about the outdoor rinks, where we stand now, why we made the decisions as a council in the past and what we’re doing about it moving forward.

The other hope I have is that you understand we are following this process to ensure we’re making the best decisions possible and not spending money on band aid solutions, but working on a plan that will service residents properly as we continue to grow.

The next steps are for council to review these options when they come to us later this year and to make the decisions about the capital and operating investments that will have to be made. As I mentioned, the refrigerated rinks comes with a price tag – a cost that will have to be paid by taxpayers (i.e. property taxes) and our council will have to decide if there is enough political will to make these investments in our community. We are going to grow in size over the next 10-20-30 years and in my opinion if we are to be a “complete community” our council will have to make these investments now. Waiting for a “want to become a need” as some around our table have described it is simply shortsighted knowing full well how large we are going to be growing.

We have to realize on the vision we have for Milton. Its all good to talk about it – we need to start doing it.