Two organizations have appealed to the city to waive ice fees after the cancellation of hockey games and practices on the day of the downtown shootings which occurred last month.
The Ottawa District Minor Hockey Association and Hockey Eastern Ontario wrote to Mayor Jim Watson on Wednesday citing thousands of dollars in ice fees for games and practices that were scheduled but never happened due to the Oct. 22 shootings.
Denis Dumais, president of the ODMHA, said he can’t confirm that teams were scheduled to play at Tom Brown Arena, which straddles the border of Centretown, but he suspects that was the case.
According to Dumais, the association was monitoring the situation once news broke about the shooting and despite numerous calls to the city, was unable to get any word on whether or not the arenas should remain open or closed.
Dumais said the hockey associations erred on the side of safety and cancelled the games, even though the city never officially closed the arenas.
He noted that with widespread lockdowns across the city, many parents weren’t able to leave work and bring their kids to games.
The leagues are asking the city to waive the fees from Oct. 22 so that the money can go to covering the costs of rebooking the ice time instead, reported CFRA.
“The city is looking into how the events that took place on October 22 impacted recreating facility rental groups,” Don Chenier, general manager of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services, said in an email,
Dumais said he doesn’t think the associations’ requests are out of line.
“We’re not asking for the city to give us money,” said Dumais, “All we’re asking is for them to forgive us for what we didn’t use.”
The city has yet to issue a formal response to the request.