The District of Houston council has adopted a revised user policy for the Claude Parish Memorial Arena, one that includes how ice time will be allocated and a dispute resolution process.
Presented to council for its approval Nov. 7, the policy replaces three older ones and brings usage and procedures up to date.
“The primary goal of this consolidation effort is to eliminate redundancies and streamline the user policies, resulting in a single, user-friends reference document for the public and our regular ice users,” leisure services director Cassie Henrickson summed up in a memo.
Brand new is a section on how ice time is to be allocated.
“This new addition is significant as it will facilitate the development of a regular and special ice schedule,” Henrickson wrote.
“It will also ensure that the process behind scheduling ice times for various user groups is transparent and equitable.”
The allocation process begins with a summer time ice users meeting where the schedule set is considered final.
“Please note that no users are guaranteed the ice time they held in the previous season,” the new policy affirms.
Ice time is then determined based on previous season registration numbers and new groups must demonstrate sufficient numbers to justify the ice time they want.
Thereafter group sizes are set at 12 people to ensure fairness, safety and skill development.
It means that the arena booking agent divides the number of registered participants of any organization by 12 to set the number of groups for that organization.
“For example, if an organization has 120 members, it is divided by 12, resulting in 10 groups,” the policy outlines.
Minor sports organizations receive a minimum of 90 minutes per week for each group of 12 while adult sports organizations receive a minimum of 60 minutes per week.
Minor sports groups can also reserve up to 18 hours of weekend ice time for special events. More special event hours are possible provided no other regular ice user has requested the time.
The inability of groups to resolve booking conflicts among themselves and lead to the leisure services director making a decision.
Preference may be given to existing and repeat bookings but the director may also use a lottery to determine who should receive a scheduled ice time.
Ice user groups who are dissatisfied with how ice time is allocated can take their case to the leisure services director and if still unresolved to the District of Houston’s chief administrative officer.
“If necessary, the matter may be brought to the attention of council,” the policy reads.
Prior to council’s adoption, councillor Troy Reitsma did ask how the allocation procedure based on registration numbers was developed, noting that there have been issues over either very early morning or late evening ice times for younger skaters.
Henrickson said high numbers among younger skater user groups do mean complications.
She said the decision to set the group number at 12 when allocating time is the same number used in Vanderhoof. In Smithers, the group number is 15 while Burns Lake has no group number.
“So this kind of keeps us in line with neighbouring communities,” Henrickson added.