Features

 News Desk
 News Briefs
 News Summaries
 Columnists
 Sports
 Editorial
 Arctic arts
 Readers comment
 Find a job
 Tenders
 Classifieds
 Subscriptions
 Market reports
 Northern mining
 Oil & Gas
 Handy Links
 Construction (PDF)
 Opportunities North
 Best of Bush
 Tourism guides
 Obituaries
 Feature Issues
 Advertising
 Contacts
 Archives
 Today's weather
 Leave a message


NNSL Photo/Graphic

NNSL Logo .
Home page text size buttonsbigger textsmall text Text size Email this articleE-mail this page

Residents want two rinks

Carolyn Sloan
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 15, 2008

IQALUIT - Iqaluit city council will soon decide whether to invest in the necessary repairs to restore the Arctic Winter Games Arena as a fully-functioning facility.

In preparation, councillors opened the floor to citizens at a public hearing Sept. 9.

The response from parents, coaches, educators and athletes, both in person and through written submissions, was overwhelmingly in favour of making the necessary repairs, arguing the older Arnaitok arena can no longer support the growing needs of its users.

"I still believe that two arenas could be justified and supported in Iqaluit," said Jeff Bisson, coach, referee, hockey parent and representative of the Iqaluit Amateur Hockey Association executive. "The advantage of perhaps having two ice surfaces... (is) it also allows all the different programs to not impact each other."

Hockey mom and recreational athlete Siobhan Moss said demands on ice time have grown, and added that even the older arena was in poor condition.

"Playing broom ball we have to run through puddles sometimes. There are cracks in the ice. When we're teaching the little kids, trying to get them skating, we have to (put) pylons on the ice to watch out for dangerous spots," Moss told council.

After hearing the comments, Kieran O'Sullivan of the North West Company stepped forward to say the company would like to see the Arctic Winter Games Arena restored. He said the company is willing to discuss with council how they could help in this regard.