‘We’re going to have ice’: Sackville Arena confident municipal funding will come through

The president of the association that owns the Sackville Arena in Lower Sackville says “positive” steps have been taken in the days following an announcement that ice would not be installed at the community rink this year.

On Tuesday, the Lake District Recreation Association (LDRA) made that announcement in a post to its Facebook page, drawing significant concern from the community.

The arena provides ice for the community, including Sackville Minor Hockey and local high school teams. But after discussions following this week’s post, Halifax Regional Council will be voting on Aug. 20 on providing $50,000 to the LDRA to cover operating costs for this year.

“I’m going to be bringing this forward and championing it,” Lower Sackville Councillor Paul Russell said in an interview with The Todd Veinotte Show on Thursday. “There’s no question that they need the funds and that this is going to be happening.”

“I’m optimistic that it will pass and we’ll be able to get the LDRA the funding they will be looking for.”

The funding means hockey will be played at Sackville Arena this year, according to LDRA President Allan Smith.

“We’re going to have ice, and we’re going to have an agreement going forward for at least the next five years,” Smith told 95.7 NewsRadio on Thursday.

There are still questions about why the funding agreement, which expired in 2023, was not initially renewed for 2024.

“In December 2023, I asked them to renew the agreement and it fell through the cracks. I don’t know if it fell through the cracks deliberately, or if it just fell through the cracks,” Smith said. “It took me nine months to get $50,000, and to me that is absolutely ridiculous. I shouldn’t have to fight like that, I shouldn’t have to fight at all.”

Councillor Russell meantime says he didn’t recieve communication from the LDRA until March, at which point it was too late to get a funding renewal into the municipal budget.

“Allan says that he sent me an email in January and I have no doubt that he did, however I have no record of that email,” Russell said. “So he resent it in March.”

Russell says he managed to get a five-year agreement restarted for 2025, but that still left a gap for this year. He says the $50,000 now being provided to the LDRA will be made up of $25,000 from Parks and Recreation, and another $25,000 from his own discretionary funding.